Merrimack Mill Village is recognized as one of the best old-house neighborhoods in the South

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- It's an old-house neighborhood, all right. There are long porches, American flags waving in the breeze and historical markers just below the front doors.

There are concrete outbuildings in the backyards, tulip poplars more than 100 years old in the front yards and bicyclists riding down the quiet streets.

Maybe it's not the best-known of all the old-house neighborhoods in Huntsville. But Merrimack Mill Village is the only one in town cited by "This Old House" on its recent list of the best old-house neighborhoods in the South.

Merrimack Mill Village joined old-house neighborhoods in St. Petersburg, Fla., suburban Atlanta and Memphis, among other places, on the list by "This Old House."

"A lot of people compare us to Five Points," said Jim Marek, president of the Merrimack Mill Village Organization. "They say we'll be the next Five Points."

Those people have good reasons. There's a revitalization of historic homes, many of them duplexes, that's reminiscent of what happened in Five Points in the 1990s and beyond.

There are strong signs of renovation on Clopton Street, Alpine Street and Triana Boulevard, among other places.

On Bradley Street, there's a tidy home with a new fence. Farther north, on North Broad Place, there's another renovated house with a new fence about to be installed.

On the corner of Clopton Street and Drake Avenue, Steven Gaffin and his wife, Mary Lee, are renovating another of the houses that was built in 1923.

Gaffin is a 26-year-old engineer with a long-time enthusiasm for old houses. His wife is an archeologist for Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research.

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Merrimack Mill Village is recognized as one of the best old-house neighborhoods in the South