national register nomination for boulevard park historic

focused on buildings and districts. Preservation often fails to address the complete
histories of the neighborhoods that formed those districts, and the people who lived in
them. Many books on historic preservation mention gentrification, and some identify it as
a problem, but few provide potential solutions. Some recent works address gentrification
more directly, but much of the study of gentrification comes from geographers and urban
planners rather than preservation professionals.
Displacement of ethnic communities via urban renewal is a subject discussed by
urban historians and historic preservation advocates, but gentrification can also cause
displacement. If the purpose of contemporary historic preservation is to preserve a
neighborhood, is that neighborhood well served if gentrification results in an exodus of
its original inhabitants? If a historic district is adjacent to a neighborhood that is not
considered historic, do neighborhood boundaries mean the non-historic neighborhood is
open to demolition, even if its uses and inhabitants are similar? Who decides what is
historic and what is not, and using what criteria?
Works that deal with historic preservation practice connect theory to real-world
objectives. These works can include manuals intended for community activists hoping to
establish historic districts, homeowners hoping to restore their homes, or urban planners
seeking ways to make future cities work more like their historic equivalents. This means
not just preserving the buildings but attempting to recreate the urban fabric that was
demolished by redevelopment and suburbanization. Historic preservation is thus
intertwined with urban planning, a field with its own theory and practice. Because urban
12