Preservation at the Grassroots: Pittsburgh's Manchester Citizens Corporation and Cincinnati's Mt. Auburn Neighborhoods

This paper analyzes community-based organizations’ use of historic preservation as a means of stabilizing low-income neighborhoods. It chronicles the experience of two foundational cases – Pittsburgh’s Manchester Citizens Corporation and Cincinnati’s Mt. Auburn Good Housing Foundation, which undertook nationally-recognized historic preservation projects in the 1970s. The Mt. Auburn Good Housing Foundation, although a precedent for the more successful Manchester Citizens Corporation, ultimately dissolved under the weight of resident dissent and financial pressures. The research discusses the complexities of using preservation in low-income areas and assesses the reasons leading to success and/or failure.