Huffman Historic District

Part 1 |Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | National Historic Register Documents

Part Three: A Last-Minute Rescue

Huffman specializes in bringing homes back from the brink. When the City Commission decided to protect this National Historic Register neighborhood in 1981, nearly one-quarter of the homes in the neighborhood were boarded up.

Time, neglect -- and human abuse -- had taken their toll in some startling ways.

Linden Italianate, before and after restoration.

One of the most dramatic stories in the Huffman Historic Area is that of two homes on Huffman Avenue.

Some time in the 1930s or 1940s, the two homes, which sit on lots next to each other, were joined and then made into a number of rental units to create an extremely high-density apartment building. The high density took its toll. By the late 1970s, the buildings stood vacant, gradually heading toward collapse. In the 1980s, City inspectors had only two choices -- demolition, or restoration.

Teamwork Saves the Homes

That's when the Huffman neighbors joined forces with the City to save the homes. With a combination of public funds and a civic-minded loan program with First National Bank, neighbors separated the two buildings and have restored both of them.

They are both now occupied and being enjoyed by their new families.

This is how, on a much less dramatic scale, residents of the Huffman Historic Area have bit by bit lifted the boards off those abandoned structures and turned them back into homes.