In 1998/1999, the housing stock of the Phillips neighborhood was under unprecedented stress.  For a myriad of socio-economic reasons, the number of vacant and boarded properties in the neighborhood had reached a record high, and the demolition of standing houses had touched virtually every block.  During the same year, in an attempt to bring the attention of the public to this appalling development, Sue Anderson, a longtime resident of Phillips, undertook to construct an archival photographic record of threatened properties.  With a 35 mm camera and a briefcase full of black and white film, Anderson took pictures of each boarded-up house in the neighborhood, compiling a record for a specific moment in time of those houses that were in line to be demolished, or in a handful of cases, renovated.  She then submitted this record to the Minnesota Preservation Alliance and was granted one of ten awards given out annually by the Alliance to recognize the most worthy preservation efforts in the state for that year.

Several years later, Dawn Wangen, another activist resident of Phillips, recognized the Internet potential of Anderson's prize-winning work.  Wangen took each of the 123 photographs that Anderson had created and scanned them into electronic form, cropping them and adjusting their tonal values as necessary.  She then reincorporated the digitized photos into Anderson's text.  In what follows, the viewer will be able to see perhaps the only (and certainly the best) photographic record of the kind, type, and vintage of houses that once graced Phillips but are now gone forever.

Minneapolis' largest and lowest-income neighborhood, Phillips, a sizable concentration of historic working and middle class houses. In most neighborhoods, turn-of-the-century homes with elaborate original woodwork, beveled glass transoms and graceful front porches would be highly sought after for renovation. In East Phillips, however, these houses are being abandoned, boarded and demolished at an increasingly alarming rate, resulting in blocks with empty lots. These historic residences represent viable, affordable housing opportunities that offer an opportunity to use existing resources instead of building new homes that often lack the same standards of design, craftsmanship and materials. Phillips is one of few city neighborhoods in which property values declined in 1998. Creative neighborhood planning and building renovation policies could help add new, taxpaying residents and at the same time help ensure that the character of this historic neighborhood is not lost.