In the Heights, Saul and Ruben Obregon's house wouldn't stand out. It'd be just another cute cottage with a gingerbready porch and a fresh Victorian paint job.

Maybe you'd notice the meticulously maintained little yard or the enormous historic plaque. Or maybe not. The Heights is like that.

The Near Northside, though, is not. It's not that the right-next-to-downtown neighborhood is short on historic houses; in fact, it's jam-packed with little 100-year-old Victorians. The neighborhood is in the National Register of Historic Places

But fixing up those historic houses hasn't exactly been a priority in the low-income, heavily Hispanic neighborhood. On Everett Street, where the old houses tend to sport peeling paint and corrugated-metal carports, the Obregon brothers' stands out: an after, surrounded by befores.

Train history

The Near Northside has always been a blue-collar neighborhood, and its history — like its future - is all about trains.

Starting in the late 1800s, the new neighborhood was settled largely by the German and Irish immigrants who worked at the nearby rail yards. William L. Shipp, the first owner of the house at 1511 Everett, was a Louisiana-born freight clerk for Southern Pacific, a railroad whose shops in the Fifth Ward were said to be the largest in the Southwest, employing 5,000 men.

Houston was a rail town at the time, boasting more railroad traffic than any city south of St. Louis. In the early 1900s, the Chamber of Commerce adopted the slogan "Where Seventeen Railroads Meet the Sea." A locomotive had pride of place in the new city seal.

But eventually, as railroad traffic fell off, the railroad workers moved away from the Near Northside, and the Irish and Germans immigrants were replaced by Hispanics. The Flores family bought the house in 1945.

In 2000, Ruben finally convinced Margaret Flores to sell it to him. She made him promise not to tear it down.

Train future

"I had the vision," Ruben says. "But it was Saul that made it happen."

What Ruben had seen, while visiting his aunt and uncle next door, was a house that could look like those Heights houses that he loved but couldn't remotely afford. Never mind that it had a corrugated-metal carport, or that the pretty front porch had been enclosed in an ugly way. There was nothing wrong with it that couldn't be fixed.

Nothing, a real estate agent would say, except its neighborhood, which isn't the kind that usually attracts young professionals like the Obregon brothers. Ruben and Saul - like all of their siblings - are ambitious and upwardly mobile, living out the American Dream that drove their parents to leave Monterrey for Texas. Ruben works for IKON Office Solutions; Saul, an engineer, does 3-D animation related to oil exploration.

In the Near Northside, the Obregons saw a neighborhood that, like their house, could be upwardly mobile as well. Saul gets excited - "stoked," he says - thinking about changes that are bound to follow a new light-rail station, under construction less than a block away from his house.

For the moment, at least, the house is all Saul's. Ruben got married a few years ago and is living in San Antonio while his wife finishes school there. Alone, Saul started spending every weekend on home-improvement projects. At first neighbors asked why he was working so hard. Now they admire the place, he says, and sometimes talk about similar renovations themselves.

While driving through the Heights, studying Victorian paint colors, he noticed historic plaques and wondered idly how to get one of them. He called the city's historic preservation office, and the next day, a couple of excited preservationists were snapping photos of his house and telling him it would be a shoo-in for a historic designation - and the first on the Near Northside.

The Obregons chose to make the house a Protected Landmark of the City of Houston, meaning that it can't be torn down. And given the development pressures the new rail station is likely bring, that's significant. The Near Northside may soon be swallowed by townhouses. But Saul likes knowing that his house will stay.

Every year, the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance's Good Brick Awards recognize outstanding projects. This year's crop includes:

The Beer Can Housethe famous folk-art work created by hard-drinking upholsterer John Milkovisch - required the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art's preservation crew to ponder issues that rarely cross art conservators' minds. Such as: Where can you find replacements for 1960s-style pull tabs? (222 Malone.)

The African-American Library at the Gregory School,part of Houston Public Library, occupies the building erected in 1926 to serve as Houston's first public school for African-American children. Before the its rebirth as a library, the building had been vacant since 1980. (1300 Victor)

The Gragg Building(originally known as the Farnsworth & Chambers Building) was not only designed by Frank Lloyd Wright acolytes McKie & Kamrath, but also served as NASA's first Houston headquarters. Carefully renovated, the building is now Mission Control for the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. (2999 S. Wayside)

Market Square Park,the site of Houston's former City Hall, was beautifully redeveloped as a history shrine/dog park/gyro restaurant. Thank the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, the Houston Downtown Management District, and the Downtown Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ #3. (Travis at Congress)

The National Cash Register Co.,a 1929 showroom designed by Joseph Finger, was renovated by Deborah Keyser and James Stafford. (515 Caroline)

The William L. Shipphouse, rehabilitated by brothers Saul and Ruben Obregon, is the first and only designated protected landmark on Houston's Near Northside.(1511 Everett)

A century-old foursquarein the Westmoreland Historic District was renovated by T.J. Bath and Dan Hawkins. (211 Hawthorne)

No. 2 Longfellow Lane,in Shadyside, is an impressive house designed by Harrie T. Lindeberg. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it was renovated by Kate McCormick and Champ Warren.

This 1937 house,one of the last original houses in the little city Southside Place, was renovated by Kate McCormick and Champ Warren. (3740 Carlon)

This Folk Victorian housein the Old Sixth Ward, owned by Bennie and David Ansell, was enlarged in a way that preserved its historic character. (705-707 Sabine)

This 1876 Gulf Coast cottage,also in the Old Sixth Ward, was renovated by Taryn Kinney and Michael Morrow. (2109 Kane.)

CityView Lofts,a 1910 building that once served as a Nabisco bakery, was given new life by SILCO, Inc. (15 Chenevert)

Houston Lost and Unbuilt,a book by Steven R. Strom, documented extraordinary buildings that Houston has lost - and equally extraordinary plans for buildings never erected.

Houston's Silent Garden: Glenwood Cemetery, 1871-2009,also published last year, describes the elegant burial ground of a Who's Who of famous Houstonians. Suzanne Turner and Joanne Seale Wilson wrote it; Paul Hester made the photos.

Brennan's of Houston- for decades, one of Houston's favorite restaurants - was gutted by fire during Hurricane Ike. But for rebuilding and reopening in the former Junior League Building (1930), it won the Stewart Title Award. "Not just for preserving a Houston landmark," explained Good Brick jury chair Madeleine Hamm, "but for preserving a Houston tradition as well." (3300 Smith)

The fourth- and fifth-grade art programat Sylvan Rodriguez Jr. Elementary School (5858 Chimney Rock) won the Martha Peterson Award for a project in which students photographed historic buildings and cityscapes, then produced watercolors from the photos.

Bob Fretz Jr.,the president of Fretz Construction Co., has helped restore several historic churches and was key in rehabilitating Byrd's Department Store, a 1934 downtown building, into Byrds Lofts (919 Prairie). The GHPA awarded him its President's Award.