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The subtle beauty of working and lower-class housing fascinated poet William Carlos Williams, who praised “the old yellow wooden house indented among the new brick tenements.” A community arts program in Houston shares Williams’s appreciation for the disappearing urban landscape. Project Row Houses works to preserve the city’s architectural heritage and provide a public forum for artists and students to share their talents–all while revitalizing depressed neighborhoods.
In the early 1990s, Project Row Houses adopted twenty-two abandoned “shotgun” style houses in Houston’s Third Ward. Ten of the buildings now provide rotating exhibit space for installations focusing on art, digital media, photography, and literature. While hosting artists from South Africa, the Czech Republic, and Ireland, the Project also explores local history and culture. In 2007, a multimedia installation traced the history of the Third Ward in order to strengthen bonds between established families and residents who have arrived during a recent wave of gentrification.
The group uses some of the houses for educational programs for neighborhood children. Interdisciplinary art instruction, tutoring, and other activities (offered in conjunction with community groups) help students improve academic skills and and develop hobbies. Seven of the houses host the Young Mothers Residential Program, which provides free housing to mothers participating in family counseling, vocational training, and educational activities.
Unfortunately, problems have emerged over conflicting visions of renewal and development. Although the Project has tried to build bridges with groups seeking to gentrify the community, economic and demographic changes threaten the houses and cultural memory the program seeks to preserve. The Project created the Row House District Collaborative to find ways to balance development and traditional community life. The efforts of the Collaborative led to the creation of the Row House Community Development Corporation, which seeks to develop low and moderate income housing, maintain public spaces, and merge recent development with the historic context of the community.
