After a long, slow decline, “The Block” might at last be poised for a comeback.

For more than a decade the sad, once-beautiful façade of the Del Cardo building has stood as the gateway to the historical Eagle-Market Street “Block” community. Around the corner, the Collette building is a boarded-up blight on Eagle Street. Farther east, three moribund industrial structures inhabit the neglected area between the YMI and the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.