COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT PEOPLE DO IN HOUSTON “The reason that the 4th Ward shotguns were ‘shit,’ in my view, is that the marketplace decreed them as such. If they were valuable and well-liked, people would’ve bid up the price and competed to live in them. If the building materials were so fantastic, then there would’ve been an active salvage market on the parts. To my knowledge, that did not occur. Sure, what replaced these homes will have a shorter physical shelf life…but as demonstrated by the demolition of these sturdy homes, the economic shelf life is the deciding factor. As I stated previously, ‘People did what people do, and they did it in that location; that’s all!’ By building townhomes destined to become shit, people are doing what people do, and they’re doing it in that location; that’s all. Thereby, history is made…and I don’t care.” [TheNiche, commenting on Comment of the Day: Ballad of the Fourth Ward]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Well TheNiche, perhaps people were ignorant? It’s not entirely outside of the realm of possibility, is it? Think of all the buildings torn down in the past fifty years that would be serving the market very well today if people weren’t so shortsighted. There were, for example, some Civil War era storefronts around Market Square that might be serving the market very well today if property owners in the 1980’s hadn’t thought that parking lots were a higher and better use. Or imagine how one of downtown’s three demolished movie palaces might be doing today (compare the success of preserved movie palaces in other cities).
It would be nice if we could just have faith that what the market does is always right, but experience has shown that what really saves historic buildings, whether they’re national icons or unique neighborhoods inhabited by the less wealthy, is laws. Those laws make for a more attractive and interesting city and hence, in the long run, a better market.
If the building materials were so fantastic, then there would’ve been an active salvage market on the parts. To my knowledge, that did not occur.
__________________________________
The majority of the buildings were demolished before any attempt at salvage could be made. You can spin it any way you want but the city, along with Houston Renaissance, moved decisively, and some say illegally, to destroy what is still a “historic district” which again just points out the hypocrisy at work on the part of the mayor. And quite a few others. Some say it was racist. And in some ways it was. But it was really just plain old greed. And a “land grab.” Not only were poor African-Americans “shafted” but a number of rich Italian families who owned many of the properties who were told in the beginning to take $6 a square foot or risk taking less under eminent domain.
This.
@Mike: Fifty years is a long time to wait for a functionally obsolete building to become unshitty.
As much as people complain about abandoned buildings downtown like the Days Inn, the Central Bank Building, the Melrose Building, etc., and as much as prospective residents are already turned off by vagrants and the aroma of urine wafting up from the sidewalk, I have to think that dozens more of these decrepit eyesores would stunt the growth and desirability of downtown rather than enhance it.
That said, if you go back and read the original thread, you’d notice that I have fewer qualms about preserving individual storefronts, churches, mansions, etc. My beef is with people that want to preserve everything from a particular vernacular under the guise of history, whether anything of consequence occurred there or not, and without anybody actually wanting to make use of the structures in the present.
@Mike, are you really arguing that it’s OK for the City to tell a property owner that they have to maintain an old building that no one wants to use, just in case it might be more valuable in 20 years? When those buildings were demolished, the owners decided that a vacant lot was far more economic than the building, from a maintenance cost perspective, and from a liability perspective. I don’t think it’s reasonable for society to tell a property owner they can’t tear something down without haloing pay the upkeep. As a taxpayer, I won’t want to subsidize property owners on the off chance that something good might, possibly, happen some years down the road.
Having lived in Dallas where decrepit foreign-owned uninhabitable buildings inhabit downtown like some I-Am-Legend II backlot scene I’ll take the alternative and tear it all down. Asia too turns a cold heart to historical wealth and is necessarily pragmatic and closing their teary eyes to many centuries of culture whereas our european heritage covers barely 4 on this continent. Stop the whining and build a future, not being mired in a wrinkled past that only the landed wealthy would appreciate anyways.
If you want a growing tax base, a plethora of skilled jobs, and a chance to build Houston past its national fourth-place showing, then let the market dictate the future, in a regulated manner. We’re not Europe.
Niche, people didn’t do shit. Well connected developers did.
Developers are people, too. You’re talking to an especially un-connected one, a pathetic middleman that merely connects the end user with their space needs by restoring old buildings. But I’d like to know who pulls the strings, and how. Maybe their connections will help me. …or is this claim of yours just an idle supposition?
TheNiche, I never said it would take 50 years for those historical buildings to become valuable, I simply said that a lot of historical buildings were destroyed in the last 50 years. The movie palaces destroyed in downtown in the 1980’s, for instance, would be very valuable today.
At the whole anti-Europe crowd… why look all the way to Europe? San Antonio and New Orleans preserve their history with very good results. But then you’ll say, “Well, we’re not San Antonio and New Orleans!” Well then how about Austin and Dallas? Both vibrant economies with an evocative mixture of preserved historic buildings. “But we’re not them either!” In the end, you want nothing other than for Houston to be exactly what it was in its past. So much for a forward-looking spirit.
I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that those movie houses would be very valuable today. At least not as a means of making a financial profit. They could easily be rebuilt today if there was a profit motive. If they were still here now we’d be pouring city money into preserving them so school kids could tour them and see an obsolete form of entertainment.
If the Majestic Metro is the sort of thing that we would just have more of, I guess I just don’t really see much value. You hardly ever hear about it, and I’ve never had any reason to go inside. I think that historic preservation must be contingent on there being a viable and worthwhile user of the space whereby the public can appreciate it.
Regarding San Antoino’s and New Orleans’ history, there’s a lot more of it. Those are genuinely old cities with unique local cultures and architectural styles, and storied pasts. (San Antonio also engineered a layer of fake history by developing the Riverwalk.) Houston cannot compare, nor can it be made to compare. Austin has a few cherished landmarks, but on the whole does a poor job at preservation of commercial and institutional properties; on the residential side, NIMBYs are really the driving force more than preservationists. And Dallas is probably about the most demolition-happy city in North America. We definitely should not emulate Dallas.
This is precisely why some small remnant of Freedman’s Town should have been preserved. Without a living reminder of this city’s history, people are free to construct false narratives. Freedman’s town did not die because of the work of the invisible hand of the free market. Freedman’s town was systematically destroyed by racist government policies.
Freedman’s town began as a small settlement of freed slave but by the 1920s had blossomed into a large thriving African American community. In the 1920s, Freedman’s town comprised almost a third of the population of Houston. The community was comparable with Harlem of the 1920s with restaurants, stores, and jazz clubs that were just as popular with whites. Freedman’s town was also home to Houston College (later to become TSU), the Gregory Institute and the Carnegie Colored Library. Freedman’s town extended as far east as Travis St. downtown.
But racist City leaders saw Freedman’s town as a threat and used eminent domain laws to tear the community apart. During WW II, almost a quarter of Freedman’s town was taken to build the Allen Parkway Village housing project. Despite promises from city leaders that displaced residents would have access to the new housing, Allen Parkway Village was segregated and remained so until 1968. City Hall, the Houston Collesium and I-45 were all constructed on land that was formely Freedman’s town. 40,000 residents were displaced as a result. By the 1980s, Freedman’s town was in shambles. Decorative trim, columns and hand carved railings that once adorned many of the shot gun shacks were stolen and sold to architectural antique dealers (there is your salvage business). Despite the systematic destruction, residents fought back and as late as the 1980s were able to get a forty block area designated by the National Parks Service dedicated as a National Historic District. Instead of aggressively pursuing Federal funding to preserve the last intact settlement of freed slaves in the US, city leaders sat on their hands and let the remaining structures get bulldozed in favor of what is there today.
What is lost is the story of a community of freed slaves who went from living in tents to building their own homes, churches, roads and businesses to living in a thriving community. But that history must die as along with it necessarily goes the dark history of racism, segregation and Jim Crow laws that systematically destroyed several generations of economic and cultural achievement of the descendants of freed slaves. Houston wipes that history clean at its own peril.
Ahem, reversed gentrification.. Wonder where all the 4th ward went, try FM1960 and the suburbs. The suburbs are becoming more and more ethnic while Caucasians are coming back in town in droves. I live right on the edge of this in Alden place, as shotgun houses go ugly stucco 3 story condos come in, along with their froufrou dogs and BMW’s..
@Old School: By the time Freedmen’s Town was declared a historic district, it was no longer “a settlement of freed slaves,” as you put it. The freed slaves had died long ago and African-American culture had already been transformed at least three times over, one generation after the next. The story survives, even if the neighborhood and its culture does not.
Despite the systematic destruction, residents fought back and as late as the 1980s were able to get a forty block area designated by the National Parks Service dedicated as a National Historic District. Instead of aggressively pursuing Federal funding to preserve the last intact settlement of freed slaves in the US, city leaders sat on their hands and let the remaining structures get bulldozed in favor of what is there today.
___________________________________
Thank you for pointing this out. Those who say Freedmen’s Town (it’s Freedmen’s Town not Freedman’s Town and I was told it originally was Freedmens Town)was not and is not a historic district obviously do not know what they’re talking about. And I will point out again that our mayor was a city councilmember during this period of “historic demolition” which again points out her hypocrisy with regard to “historic preservation.” And point again that I didn’t vote for her. And what happened in Freedmen’s Town and Fourth Ward was the main reason why.
Let’s rephrase a bit:
“The reason that the employees with 15+ years of senority were ‘shit,’ in my view, is that the marketplace decreed them as such. If they were valuable and well-liked, management would’ve bid up the price and competed to keep them. If their work experience was so fantastic, then there would’ve been an active market for it. To my knowledge, that did not occur.
Sure, what replaced these employees will have a shorter physical shelf life…but as demonstrated by the downsizing of these loyal individuals, the economic shelf life is the deciding factor.
As I stated previously, ‘People did what people do, and they did it in that department; that’s all!’ By hiring individuals destined to quit as soon as they have a year on the resume’, people are doing what people do, and they’re doing it in that location; that’s all. Thereby, history is made…and I don’t care.â€
Note to corporations: hire someone who thinks any sort of history is nonsense. If they have the courage of their convictions, they won’t complain when you throw them out the door for the shiny new inexperienced college grad.