The question of how to handle historic structures in the heart of urban downtown areas is a tough one. The land they occupy would likely be more valuable (financially speaking) as retail or office space, but would the economic gain be worth the cultural/historic loss? Or do the tourism dollars generated by the history make up for the loss in rent? I don’t really have an answer for this, just wanted to point out something interesting to you. A good example of the differing approaches to this question is the fate of the places occupied by Thomas Jefferson when he lived in Philadelphia. Hidden City Philadelphia has a brief article on a couple of these.While Jefferson was writing the Declaration of Independence, he was renting space on what is now 7th and Market St. Here’s what the corner looks like today (or in 2009, via google streetview):
On the right, we can see where Jefferson lived, and on the left we can see where he would have ordered a crappy cup of coffee. (OK, so the house is a recreation, the original structure no longer exists. But the Dunkin’ Donuts is authentic!).Later, Jefferson moved to a house on the Schuylkill River in Grey’s Ferry (south Philly). That structure no longer stands, either. Via Hidden City Philadelphia, here’s what it looks like today. Granted, the house in which the Declaration was drafted is much more historically significant than a place Jefferson rented for awhile, but its interesting nonetheless.
520 Chestnut 
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