Best Old House Neighborhoods 2009: Arts and Antiques Lovers

Unique, tight-knit neighborhoods are precisely what we looked for in selecting the winners of our second annual Best Old House Neighborhoods contest—places that might not be on your radar but deserve to be. Like last year, we relied on our good friends at PreservationDirectory.com to help us contact thousands of neighborhood groups, real estate agents, and preservation societies to get their takes on the best places to track down, fix up, and fall head of heels for older homes.

These seven places are friendly to art and antique lovers, as well as artists themselves. They're either destinations for those looking to buy artwork or antiques, or places with abundant (and affordable) studio or gallery space.