The Price of Progress: An Overview of Preservation, Displacement, and Erasure in Downtown Houston

In Houston, Texas, historic preservation faces a lack of support thanks to its late implementation and deep history of development. Through the telling of downtown Houston's growth, communities, and founding, this thesis presents an alternative method of historic preservation that focuses on revenue and urban revitalization. This method focuses on implementing public history, place, diversity, and community development, and proposes a re-framing of the purpose and methods of preservation to better suit Houston's developmental culture, increase its historical context, and preserve its current character.