How building for the future can clash with respecting the past Historic preservation takes many guises: It protects the physical history of a place, and pays homage to the culture and events that shaped a town?s character. Preservation can also turn precious, making building stock prohibitively expensive for its inhabitants to renovate or remake.
In Baltimore, we tour a historic neighborhood divided between an architectural preservation movement and the need for affordable housing, and in Key West we examine the disconnect between a town of 26,000 residents and the construction that accommodates its two million annual tourists. Jackson, Mississippi, is a place still reconciling its segregated past to its rich tradition of African-American culture and activism.
Baltimore

Written by Stacia L. Brown
Video by Justin Brooks
Photos by Andrew Mangum

Tweet
Share

Walking along the 1200 through 1400 blocks of Druid Hill Avenue is like stepping into a wrinkle in the time-space continuum. The lush trees and beautiful white-marble-stooped rowhomes hearken back to the first half of the 20th century when Marble Hill, the community to which these blocks belong, was home to Baltimore's most elite black residents, including Thurgood Marshall, who would later join the Supreme Court, and civil rights lawyer Clarence Mitchell Jr.
But decay also mottles Marble Hill. Boarded up and uninhabitable rowhomes sit right next to upkept ones, reminding visitors ...