The six tiny shotgun houses that sit snugly together along Oakley Street are faded, chipped and sagging, showing every bit of their long lives. But Suzanne Pickett sees the potential in them, just like the Eastside neighborhood where they were built 118 years ago.

Pickett is head of the Historic Eastside Community Development Corp., which works to lift up the historically Black district between Springfield and the St. Johns River, north of the Sports Complex. She bought those tiny houses a couple of years ago and has begun renovations, envisioning them as a compound for artists and creative mothers.

The project is part of a changing Eastside, an often overlooked neighborhood that will most likely soon be getting national recognition.

Read the rest of this story at the Florida Times-Union, a Jacksonville Today news partner.