About partners for livable

To learn how Partners for Livable Communities 
can help your community realize its heritage 
tourism potential, visit www.livable.org.

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Cultural Heritage Tourism
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6 | MODEL ExPERIENCES IN CULTURAL 
HERITAGE TOURISM FROM ACROSS THE 
UNITED STATES
As part of Partners’ work for Cultural Tourism DC, Partners reviewed efforts that are being undertaken 
across the country to see which approaches are winning strategies that can be adopted by cities and towns 
looking to start a cultural heritage tourism agenda of their own. The following are several winning case 
studies from around the United States.
HISTORIC BOSTON INCORPORATED
IMPORTANT LeSSONS
• Mission Statement
• Historic Neighborhood Centers Initiative process
MISSION/GOALS
Historic Boston Incorporated (HBI) is a private, non-profit organization that puts people and resources 
together to preserve endangered historic sites in the city of Boston. It gives priority to projects that will 
leverage additional public and private commitments, embody thoughtful restoration standards, catalyze 
neighborhood renewal, and protect significant cultural resources.
HISTORY
Historic Boston Incorporated (HBI) was founded in 1960 from a group of aware and prescient citizens 
who embarked on preserving the Old Corner Bookstore – an 18th century building that served as a 
destination point for iconic literary figures to convene such as Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
Harriet-Beecher Stowe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Realizing the vast detriment to culture and history 
that would come from razing this structure, the group raised $100,000 in private donations to preserve the 
building. Money was borrowed for the acquisition of the site and structure rehabilitation.
STRUCTURe AND OPeRATION
For almost three decades, HBI served as one of the city’s primary historic preservation organizations. 
Since 1979, HBI has complemented the planning and regulatory authority of the Boston Landmark 
Commission through technical assistance, fundraising, operating as a financial lender, and when necessary 
purchasing buildings that are symbols of Boston’s heritage and function as neighborhood renewal 
catalysts. From its inception, HBI has focused on the strategy that historic preservation should not be 
a static process but that each preserved structure should also serve as an instrument for community 
economic development, providing economic and cultural amenities to the city.

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Cultural Heritage Tourism
Primarily a real estate development organization, funding for HBI’s projects and operation are derived 
from the tenants that occupy space at the Old Corner Bookstore. HBI’s annual revenue of $1,000,000 and 
any increase in the value of property are re-directed into funding projects and administrative operations. 
HBI functions as 501 (c)(3) non-profit with a staff of five and guidance from a Board of Directors and an 
Advisory Council.
PROGRAMS
The hisToric Neighborhood ceNTers iNiTiaTive
Decades of disinvestment and poor economic conditions ravaged many of Boston’s historic 
neighborhoods. HBI’s Historic Neighborhood Initiative is a collaborative effort with other 
community organizations, such as the Boston Main Streets program, to build neighborhood 
cohesiveness and restoration of community identity along commercial corridors. Neighborhood 
centers, squares and corners have served as the focus of neighborhoods’ social, economic, 
recreational, and spiritual activities. HBI will use historic preservation as an instrument in 
economic development of these neighborhood centers to improve the quality of life.