Neighborhood stabilization through historic preservation: An analysis of historic preservation and community development in Cleveland, Providence, Houston and Seattle

Throughout the United States, community development corporations (CDCs) are at the forefront of providing affordable housing and social services, reviving business districts, and rebuilding devastated communities brick-by-brick and block-by-block. For the past four decades, a small percentage of the nation\u27s 4,000+ CDCs have turned to historic preservation as a means to promote neighborhood stabilization. Both historic preservation and neighborhood stabilization are established public goals but, while scholars recognize the rise of both practices, the connection between them remains understudied in academic research. This dissertation fills this gap with an analysis of how and why CDCs choose preservation. It documents the breadth and history of the phenomenon and traces their union in four case studies (Cleveland\u27s Famicos Foundation, Providence\u27s Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services, Houston\u27s Avenue CDC, and Seattle\u27s Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation Development Authority). The dissertation combines an exploratory analysis of CDCs\u27 motivations with deductive testing of the driving hypothesis: CDCs use historic resources as assets that contribute to socioeconomic improvement goals and/or to build and reinforce the cultural identity of neighborhoods. The research finds that CDCs draw on highly local knowledge to tailor neighborhood stabilization strategies at a block-by-block level and that preservation makes a unique contribution to neighborhood stabilization and improves CDCs\u27 effectiveness and sophistication