The city of Mobile’s Architectural Review Board will consider next month a plan to move two historic homes from Conti Street to Hickory Street in the lower-Martin Luther King Avenue neighborhood.

The ARB, tasked with maintaining the historic properties in Mobile’s seven historic districts, will have to weigh both the precedent of moving such old structures, and the disapproval of some who live near them now, and others who will live near them when they’re relocated.

The houses, which currently sit on land owned by the Historic Restoration Society, a nonprofit organization connected the Infant Mystics Mardi Gras society; were originally going to be moved out of the city, according to nearby residents.

After outcry from those neighbors, the city of Mobile discovered they were being moved without a permit, and issued a stop work order for the two homes in May.

Since then, the houses, located at 918 and 920 Conti Street in the Old Dauphin Way Historic District have remained in limbo, one sitting up on posts off its foundation. Neighbors in the district—and residents of Mobile’s other historic districts—say that moving the houses would be catastrophic for historic preservation in Mobile.