Effort underway to try to save historic brick streets

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Members of a 4th Ward historic coalition met Sunday afternoon to try and save their brick streets.

About 100 years ago, former enslaved citizens bought bricks for $200 to $600 and helped transform dirt streets to brick ones. The community says they want the city's street and utility project to entail leaving the bricks instead of pulling them up and replacing them later. The streets include Andrews, Wilson and Robin in Freedmen's Town, which is now known as Midtown.

"We need to be as smart as them so we can save it," said Dorris Ellis with the Freedmen's Town Preservation Coalition. "We know there are problems with the streets. We can use that 21st century technology to fix it and clean it. We don't want our city to be under lawsuits or not have a good understanding of what the law says."

Ellis says they will hold a town hall meeting Monday at 7pm at 118 West Gray at Mt. Horeb.