Historic Freedmen's Town restoration paused after bricks replaced with new

Mayor Sylvester Turner lays a brick as part of a ceremony to kick off the re-installation of historic bricks made by freed slaves in Houston's Freedmen's Town on Friday, April 28, 2017. The following week it turned out many of the bricks were not original. (Courtesy of City of Houston) less Mayor Sylvester Turner lays a brick as part of a ceremony to kick off the re-installation of historic bricks made by freed slaves in Houston's Freedmen's Town on Friday, April 28, 2017. The following week it ... more Photo: Courtesy Of City Of Houston Photo: Courtesy Of City Of Houston Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Historic Freedmen's Town restoration paused after bricks replaced with new 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

The city of Houston has paused its restoration of historic bricks laid by freed slaves and their descendants in Freedmen's Town after preservationists discovered that "mounds" of the bricks were not original, the preservationists' attorney said Tuesday. However, the city said that was the plan all along.

"They brought a mixture of bricks," said Ben Hall, the lawyer who last year helped win a judge's order in favor of preservation. "That's admitted. That's not even contested. ... They brought some of the old bricks back, and they brought mounds of the new Kansas City bricks."

A resident trained to observe the contractor's work noticed that many bricks looked completely different, with two thick lines not present on the originals, said Dorris Ellis, president of the Freedmen's Town Preservation Coalition.

"It was supposed to be Freedmen's Town bricks put back in Freedmen's Town," Ellis said. "We've gone out to the storage area and we've seen bricks that should've been enough to cover the area. So I don't understand what they were doing."

READ MORE: Residents fight to save history, legacy of freed slaves in Houston's Fourth Ward

However, a Public Works spokeswoman said the bricks were approved by an archaeologist and brought in to supplement the 3,610 originals that were removed because they would not cover the entire intersection, which requires more than 13,000 bricks in total. The issue boils down to miscommunication, she said.

"We understand the important role that these bricks play in the community and in the city of Houston as a whole," said the spokeswoman, Alanna Reed. "The re-installment is temporarily suspended. The replacement bricks have been picked up. ... The new procedure is, we are going to show these archaeologist-approved bricks to the Freedmen's Town Preservation Coalition before they are installed, just so we avoid the confusion."

This latest hiccup comes six months after a city contractor on Nov. 21 disturbed a 6-foot by 10-foot segment of the bricks while using a backhoe to pull up a concrete slab, the Chronicle reported in November. A resident intervened and stopped the construction crew.

Mayor Sylvester Turner was in Mexico City at the time on a trade mission, but he took the time to fire off a tweet voicing his displeasure.

"The contractor should preserve any and all bricks removed from Andrew St," Turner wrote. "No one should have touched Andrew St w/o my specific authorization."

GIVEN COVER: Freedmen's Town rental homes named 'protected landmarks'

In December, the mayor laid out a plan for the bricks' restoration, assuring residents that the city would have an archaeologist who would oversee the job.

Last Friday, Turner laid a brick there as part of a ceremony to mark the restoration.

"The city of Houston has fulfilled its promises, the intersection at Genesee Street and Andrews Street is almost complete and these historic bricks are being reinstalled with improved infrastructure," Turner said at the time. "We recognize the important place these bricks hold in the history of our city, and today the bricks get returned home."

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: Relatives look through historic cemetery after vandals strike

The bricks, located along Andrews Street in Houston's Fourth Ward, represent "the only remaining vestige of black slave ancestors constructing physical structures inside the city of Houston with their own money," said Hall, who was among the candidates in last year's mayoral election.

"It's just a tragic erosion of history in Freedmen's Town," Hall said. "Unless the mayor and his administration feel that it's important to the history of Houston, it'll eventually be lost."

Scroll through the above gallery to see when Freedmen's Town underwent restoration in 2014