This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

In the early 1950s, Sam Moore and his family left rural Arkansas looking to start a new life.

They planned on moving to Chicago.

We were on our way to Chicago with all our worldly possession and our dog's spot.

And we started off in my granddad, his 53-dynofloat, but got the same loosen ran out of gas.

And instead of continuing on to Illinois, Moore's family just decided to stay.

They settled in a middle-class area called the Ville.

Back then St. Louis was segregated and the Ville was one of the only African-American neighborhoods in the city.

But residents of the Ville made the best of it.

That's reporter Zach Dyer.

Black owned businesses thrived and the neighborhood became one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the country.

Do you mind if we just roll the windows up just for the recording?

Okay, I turn there on.

Sam Moore's dad got a job as a bricklayer and helped build some of the beautiful, stately brick homes in this area.

He was a great bricklay. He did quite a few jobs around this town. I still see some of my dads work.

Oh wow, really?

It was a beautiful homes, triple brick, three-story, two-story buildings that will cost a million dollars to duplicate.

But driving around the Ville today, where Moore has lived for almost his entire life and is now the alderman, the neighborhood looks very different.

We pull up in front of a couple of old houses.

One on one second. Look at these two buildings. Look at that building. You can see clean through it.

From the street, the building's facade looks normal. It's a two-story brick home sitting on a white limestone base.

Rounded brick arches frame the first four windows, but head just around the corner and you can see that the entire side wall is missing.

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