Project: What's old can be new again
Urban renewal takes root in DeLand's downtown

By Joe Crews - STAFF WRITER, THE DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL
OCT 18, 2001

DELAND - The seeds have been planted, and now the first sprigs are sprouting in a planned "garden district" - a neighborhood of nearly century old homes that are being given new life.

Led by transplant Michael Arth, 48, a home and urban designer from California, a handful of property owners have been buying and renovating rundown homes in a former high crime area near downtown DeLand.

"I saw beautiful houses that had been built early in the last century, most of them built between 1910 and the 1920's," Arth said. "It was a nice neighborhood until the 1970's" when urban sprawl and illegal drug use mushroomed. READ MORE >>