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This article examines the Pralltown neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, and the concept of the “unsuccessful” urban renewal project. Pralltown was created for and by freed slaves following the Civil War, and for virtually its entire existence, it has endured public policy efforts to change the neighborhood in order to address its real or perceived failings. By framing the two urban renewal projects proposed for Pralltown as points in a long line of reform efforts, this article draws attention to the persistent need for residents of postbellum African American neighborhoods to devote time and energy countering policies of marginalization.

The federal urban renewal program had wide-ranging consequences for American cities of all sizes and locations. Among the most consequential was its catalyzing effect on the historic preservation movement nationwide. While preservation practice at the dawn of the urban renewal era emphasized historic monuments, by its end in the mid-1970s, preservationists were much more concerned with neighborhoods, districts, and larger swaths of urban fabric, thus, becoming relevant to all manner of future city shaping and revitalizing efforts. While this expansion took place nationwide, the paths taken by individual cities varied considerably. Because of its large number of historic downtown residential neighborhoods, and its long involvement with historic preservation, Lexington, Kentucky, provides an ideal case study to explore this transformation, highlighting the ways in which neighborhood associations and local preservation organizations collaborated to set the stage for widespread adoption of local historic districts in the 1970s.

It is widely recognized that what constitutes successful heritage practice today is not the same as what constituted successful heritage practice in the mid or even late twentieth Century. Many of ...

Traditional urban renewal scholarship has emphasized the experiences of America’s largest cities, leaving the equally significant story of urban renewal in small cities largely unexplored. This is particularly surprising, given that the overwhelming majority of communities to have received urban renewal funds had populations of less than 50,000. This article uses the state of Kentucky to develop a framework for analyzing the effects of the federal urban renewal program on small cities in the United States. Of particular importance for this research is recognizing the value of the June 30, 1974, Urban Renewal Directory as a data source.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Resilience has become an important planning goal for state and local government, providing a policy arena in which to integrate historic preservation and disaster mitigation, but significant questions remain about that relationship. There has been no study of coordination between preservation and hazard mitigation planning at the state level, and there is no widely available methodology for assessing the flood exposure of historic resources. In this study, we use mixed methods to address these two issues. We evaluate the degree to which state historic preservation plans and state hazard mitigation plans reflect an effort to connect planning processes or goals. We then use the states of Kentucky, Florida, and Colorado to assess the suitability of publicly available spatial data for identifying flood-exposed historic resources, paying special attention to the National Park Service's Certified Local Government (CLG) program and the National Trust's Main Street progra...

The city of Alexandria, Virginia, USA, has often been recognized as an innovator in public archaeology circles. But one major aspect of the city’s relationship with archaeology has never received sufficient attention. The 1975 formation of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission (AAC) created a model for combining archaeology with grassroots community activism. This article explores the political environment that facilitated the creation of the AAC, emphasizing the years between 1964 and 1980. It also explores how this collaborative arrangement has institutionalized citizen and community involvement in the process of developing archaeological information, and how this framework could be of use to other communities.

Archaeology is nothing if not local. While an archaeological site may be understood by its connections to regional, national, or global events, the site itself is important because it represents a specific place on the map where someone did something (or where many people did many things, as the case may be). While archaeologists are accustomed to thinking of sites in terms of their informational potential, they may be less accustomed to thinking about the value of being a “place on the map.” Being a “place on a map” means that any archaeological site is also real property, and real property in the USA is subject to the rules and regulations developed by the three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Each of these can play a role in archaeological protection. Archaeologists in the USA are well aware of how federal regulations, such as section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, shape archaeological practice. There has been remarkably little attention paid to the possibilities that exist at the local government level, however, and local government may be archaeology’s best bet for harnessing the public’s interest in the past and transforming that interest into a more robust ethic of archaeological stewardship. Local government also provides arguably the most effective option available for protecting archaeological resources on private property throughout a community. Relying on the experiences of cities and counties in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and other states, this chapter will explore several characteristics of successful municipal archaeology programs. It will also devote particular attention to the legal protection that can be afforded to archaeological sites through local land development regulations.

From ancient times to the present, cities have been dynamic places that bring together people of diverse occupations and classes, and they are constantly transforming as economic, political, and social conditions change.

In Empowering Communities through Archaeology and Heritage, Peter Gould provides entry to several increasingly important conversations, all of which should be of interest to students aspiring to a ...

This paper explores how the municipal archaeology programs found in Alexandria, Virginia; St. Augustine, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona have played a prominent role in developing unique, place-based amenities that integrate local history with other community needs. These cities are unusual in that they maintain archaeologists on city staff and that those archaeologists have used their positions to develop local environments that are extremely supportive of public engagement with history. Using interviews as well as archival and documentary sources, this paper demonstrates how the public's resulting familiarity with archaeology has allowed the interpretation of local history to take a variety of unexpected forms, including public and private open spaces, urban walking and cycling trails, museums, and public art, among many others.