You could easily think that there is nothing worth preserving about this neighborhood. It has no historic value. There are similar ones all around the city. It is just a unremarkable collection of small 60-year-old cottages originally built for working-class families that happens to be surrounded on three sides by big estates that cost twenty times as much or more. Still, a few years ago for a brief period a handful of people thought it was worth trying to keep it as it was.

For years the neighborhood changed slowly. When a house changed hands new owners would modernize the kitchen or add on a master bedroom suite or a family room. When we moved here ten years ago some of the houses were still in the hands of original owners. Most people knew their neighbors. They borrowed each others tools and looked out for each others kids. There was a small-town or country feel to the place even though it was in the city.

Then something gradually started to be different. New houses started to go up on the few remaining vacant lots and when they were filled up old houses started to get torn down to make way for new ones. These houses were much bigger. They filled their lots to such an extent there was scarcely room for a tree. Instead of a porch swing and rose bushes in front they presented a row of garage doors and a paved driveway.

At first we thought nobody would buy these houses and the developers would soon give up and go away. But that did not happen. A few people recognized that these changes would destroy the small-town feel of the place and decided to try to do something about it. They took over the moribund neighborhood association and tried to rally the neighborhood to their side. They began to publish a newsletter to advocate their point of view and to hold meetings. Legally there was nothing to be done since the neighborhood was developed piecemeal and had no restrictions other than regular city codes. But they believed that if everyone in the neighborhood shared their values and stuck together they could prevent the changes from taking over. They passed around petitions and presented them to builders.

From the beginning you could see that it was not going to work. There were a lot of people at the meetings but afterward they would shake their heads and say “Yes, it’s a shame, but everyone should have the right to do as they want with their own property.” Besides they might soon be able to sell out at a handsome profit and move on anyway.

Someone at least was threatened. There arose an alternative neighborhood newsletter, published anonymously, which satirized the association leaders and went so far as to name “tacky yard of the month” awards.

In the end of course they failed. All of the leaders have sold out and moved away. In a final act of bitterness they formally dissolved the neighborhood association and mailed the charter back to the state. One woman even sold her property to a developer. The house going up there now looks as if it may turn out to be one of the ugliest.

Read what others have to say about “preserving place” at Ecotone.