Brick streets dispute heats up in Freedman's Town

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Year by years, what was once a thriving neighborhood for African Americans, just a stone's thrown from downtown, is disappearing.

What are called 'shotgun' houses and woodframe homes are vanishing, replaced by 2 and 3 story townhomes, assimilated into the neighboring midtown area.

Freedmen's Town may be vanishing, but the memory of what it represents is not. Which brings us to the brick streets, which for those with roots in the area, is a symbol of its history.

The bricked streets are at least a hundred years old, dating back to the time when prominent black doctors and lawyers called the area home, as did alot of other families. The bricks represent that connection to the past.

But the wave of development has brought in new housing with more on the way. That creates a need for water and sewer line improvements, and that's where the bricks come in.

City council approved a contract to run new lines beneath Andrews Street. The cost is $5.6 million for a nine block run along Andrews and then on Wilson Street.

The director of the yates museum, which preserves the area's history wanted the city to run utilities beneath sidewalks, rather than disturb the bricks. A public works spokesperson says that would be cost-prohibitive. The museum's director disagrees.

As part of the project, the city would remove, then replace the original bricks on the street, in the location from which they were taken.

The president of the Freedmen's Town Association is skeptical that would happen. Another project years ago still has bricks from another street stored in a city warehouse.

The project may be approved, but some are considering whether it could be halted, to better work out details.

And not all the residents oppose it- certainly the owner of a new metal townhome.

"The streets here are awful," he said, adding he had no emotional ties to the bricks. He said he didnt want to be identified.