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Preservationists Fight To Save Historic District In Houston

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The Associated Press

Published: June 15, 2008

HOUSTON - The day Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church crumbled into shards of bricks and a pile of rubble, tears filled the eyes of the people who had tried to save the historical structure.

But their grief was not just for this 68-year-old building in Houston's Fourth Ward.

On this recent Friday, the solemn group was also crying for all the other vanished fragments of Freedmen's Town, the nation's only remaining post-Civil War historic district built by freed slaves.

They mourned for Bethel Baptist Church, a century-old structure reduced to a scorched hull by a fire four years ago, and for the shotgun-style houses on Victor Street, where Houston's first black teachers, lawyers and brickmasons once lived and now seem abdicated to neglect.

They lamented the loss of historical homes and churches that have been demolished to make room for markers of a new Houston - a modern metropolis of skyscrapers, new urban lofts and chic cafes.

"One person's historical structure is another person's blight," Houston Mayor Bill White said.

Battle Of Old And New

The pattern has been repeated countless times in other cities, where gentrification and urban redevelopment have displaced residents and swallowed cultural landmarks in long-established African-American neighborhoods.

But in Houston, a city hungering for recognition as a place of glitz, power and progress, the tug-of-war between preservation of the old and celebration of the new is stark.

"We're just trying to preserve what's left of Freedmen's Town. The Fourth Ward symbolizes our community," said Debra Blacklock-Sloan, historian of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, which works to preserve the district's history.

"There's going to be development, but it needs to be harmonious between new development and old," she said.

Freedmen's Town traces its beginnings to 1866, when emancipated slaves first settled in tents and shanties on the banks of Buffalo Bayou, swampy land no one else wanted. Soon, the new settlers had built homes, businesses and brick churches and paved the streets with bricks they forged themselves.

For decades, Freedmen's Town was the epicenter of Houston's African-American community, a thriving enclave of professionals, educators and businessmen. But the Depression caused homeowners to lose their properties.

Many left. Others stayed and watched as their community slid into disrepair

In 1984, Freedmen's Town was designated a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places. At the time, 530 historic structures stood in the 40-block area. Today, 30 structures remain. Eight of its 19 churches are standing.

In the 1990s, after developers and city planners discovered the neighborhood just outside downtown, blocks of modern low-income housing, mid-income town houses and upscale lofts began to push the old structures and residents.

The new residents are drawn by the lure of an urban chic lifestyle, and financial incentives, attracting a new mostly white population, replacing the African-American families who could trace their roots to the original settlers.

The new residents are more interested in improving city services and infrastructure than saving aging buildings. They are viewed with suspicion and, sometimes, hostility, said John Obsta, the New Fourth Ward Homeowners Association president.

"It is awkward for us. We do respect the older residents, but there are challenges our community faces that others don't," said Obsta, who moved to Freedmen's Town four years ago and represents about 250 new homeowners. "I've come to love this area of town and to know its history."

But, Obsta said, the older, often-neglected buildings draw drug dealers and transients, and some structures seem beyond repair, including Mount Carmel church.

'Sacred Corridor' Sought

Neighborhood boosters had been seeking historic landmark status for the remaining churches, including Mount Carmel. They hoped to create a "sacred corridor" they liken to the preservation of historic missions of San Antonio.

In April, they believed they'd won a small victory when Mount Carmel and another church received landmark approval from the city's historical commission - the first step toward securing the status.

Not long afterward, the 68-year-old church crumbled.

Sally Wickers, executive director of the Freedmen's Town Coalition of Pastoral Leaders, said church leaders could have applied for grants to speed a planned restoration if the city had moved faster to designate the building a landmark.

Mayor's spokesman Frank Michel said city landmark status would not have saved the building. He said it had not been maintained for years. He said the city has been making progress, citing the brick streets plan and the recent groundbreaking for a planned African American library and archives.

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