In the six years since the January 25th Revolution, Egypt has fallen on hard times, wracked by ongoing state instability and the consequent unraveling of its economy. Against the backdrop of this political and economic turmoil, however, Cairo has emerged as an object of sustained local, national, and international attention–an unexpected canvas onto which a range of actors have painted their social and political aspirations for the country’s future. This attention has manifested itself in myriad ways, but it is most visible in the numerous sociospatial interventions that have recently proliferated across the capital–a staggering array of state and non-state sponsored activities focused on the city and its residents. Predictably, heritage-making projects have been central to such initiatives–from traditional conservation work to restore architecturally significant buildings to education programs designed to cultivate cultural heritage awareness among Egyptian youth. These interventions have been dizzying in both scale and scope, suggesting in the aggregate that the entire urban landscape is being reclaimed and reconstituted. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cairo from 2014-2016, my paper narrows in on such efforts in the area of “Historic Cairo.” This neighborhood, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has long been the object of state and international attention due to its rich architectural heritage; however, since 2011, it has witnessed a surge of non-state sponsored activity by local organizations. My paper explores the work of one such group involved in this area: Megawra, an Egyptian NGO that was conceived just as the January 25th Revolution was unfolding. Headed by a well-known conservationist, the organization has been focused on cultural heritage management and urban revitalization in the vicinity of Shari’a al-Khalifa, a secluded, residential street with several important historic structures. My paper queries how and why the Khalifa neighborhood and its architectural heritage were mobilized by Megawra–and what they represent to the organization at both the practical and the symbolic levels. In addition though, I explore the consequences of their interventions for local residents and community members–the professed beneficiaries of the NGO’s work. Through an analysis of Megawra’s activities, I engage the broader question of how and why, in a moment of protracted political turmoil, local actors have been turning to specific urban spaces and historicized structures to articulate changing sociopolitical values and ideas.