In 2018 the 19th-century Halleck Street Log Cabin was rediscovered by chance in a blighted Great Migration-era neighborhood of Detroit. It quickly became the centerpiece of an enthusiastic community-led restoration and educational project in the neighboring city of Hamtramck before it met an untimely and sudden demolition at the hands of the City of Detroit in February of 2019. This presentation recounts the archaeological investigations of the late 19th-century log cabin in the context of the city's blight removal efforts. It also uses the controversy surrounding the cabin's demolition to discuss how federal policies towards blight removal are adversely affecting the identification and preservation of poor, working-class historic resources in post-industrial cities.