Houston Pays To Preserve Historic Brick Streets

"The city's new plan to repair two Fourth Ward streets that were paved with bricks by former slaves will cost about $500,000 more than its original proposal, a city official said Tuesday."

"The city now will use a tunneling method to replace the water and sewer lines underneath Andrews and Wilson streets in a historic area called Freedmen's Town. The city's public works director said it will cost $500,000 more than the initial plan, which had an estimated budget of about $3.2 million."

"In May, city officials outlined to residents their plans to remove the bricks, clean them, build utility lines and replace the bricks in the original patterns."

"But community leaders and preservationists, fearing that the bricks made by the freed slaves would not be replaced, objected to that plan."

"Residents who moved into the neighborhood in the last decade, however, favored the city's initial plan because they wanted repairs done quickly."