In the City, where residential construction largely predated the use of racial restrictions, restrictive agreements were assembled by collecting signatures door-to-door. In St. Louis, the white realtors trade association, the St. Louis Real Estate Exchange (SLREE), was both the primary driver behind the drafting and assembly of petition restrictions, and—as a third-party signatory to most of the them—the primary enforcement mechanism as well. The SLREE’s “uniform restriction agreement” (see sample below) sought to “preserve the character of said neighborhood as a desirable place of residence for persons of the Caucasian Race” holding that homeowners could not “erect, maintain, operate, or permit to be erected, maintained or operated any slaughterhouse, junk shop or rag-picking establishment” or “sell, convey, lease, or rent to a negro or negroes.”
