The one-story red brick house at 3137 Whittier Street in St. Louis looks much like the other rundown homes in the area. Even the initial B on the metal awning hanging over the narrow front does not give much of a clue of what happened here. But in this modest house from 1952 to 1958, Chuck Berry created rock ‘n’ roll.

No less of an authority than John Lennon said, “If you tried to give rock ‘n’ roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.” Following Berry’s death earlier in 2017 at age 90, the city of St. Louis is soliciting proposals to restore the house, build a cultural center, and revitalize the neighborhood.

Chuck Berry and his wife bought the three-room house in 1950 for $4,500 after the legal barriers of restrictive covenants barring sales to minorities were struck down by the Supreme Court. He later remembered that his white neighbors welcomed his family, sending over spaghetti right after they moved in.

The following year he bought his first electric guitar. Soon he was playing blues and country music in the area before hooking up with the Sir John’s Trio at the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis. Berry set up a studio in his basement with a crude tape recorder.