Warren’s large and unique cluster of Victorian-era historic buildings — many of which still operate as mixed-use structures with residential units above and commercial units on the street level, as they have since the 19th century — found a new fan in recent weeks; one whose adventures attract tens of thousands of followers.

Matthew Dickey, who runs an increasingly popular Instagram page called “streetscapecurator”, normally focuses his attention throughout the Greater Boston area, which became his home in 2011 when he moved to the city for graduate school while pursuing a career in the arts.

During Instagram’s early days, Dickey took to his bicycle and began taking photos and researching Boston’s many historic buildings, sharing simple but attractive photos and detailed stories about architectural landmarks and lesser known structures to a growing audience of fans interested in historic preservation and the buildings located around them.

“I really like to learn why and how cities look the way they do and what choices were made, or what was maybe erased to build something new,” he said during a recent interview. “What histories were lost? What stories are we trying to tell, and what stories haven't been told?”

When Dickey was approached by some Warren residents, including Town Councilwoman Keri Cronin, he admits that he hadn’t heard of the town before, but quickly realized it fit right into the mold he had created for his page.

“I did not know that Warren was a thing,” he said. “But then I was looking at different buildings on Water Street on Google Street View and I was like, ‘Oh I gotta go.’”

Dickey made the journey to Warren in late February, touring up and down Water Street and branching off to various side streets throughout the town’s historic waterfront district, and was immediately smitten, not only with the number of historic structures that had been preserved and maintained their original aesthetic from the past, but by the people he met as well.

“I think Warren has one of the largest collections of Victorian-era commercial buildings,” he said. “But it also has a music performing space, it has multiple coffee shops, multiple bookstores, amazing food. You can walk everywhere. There’s a brewery right on the water, like how is this here? It felt amazing when I was there, but then also meeting all the artists who kind of just take over a building and make it work.”

At the time Dickey was visiting, the proposal to convert 119 Water St. into a mixed-use apartment building was still in full swing and the outcome remained uncertain. He spoke about the importance of trying to save historic structures, which is near and dear to his heart considering his day job as the Communications Director for the Boston Preservation Alliance.

“Architecture has this rare ability to punch through time, because it was built in one period and then we exist with it today. So it’s that physical, tangible link to the past,” he said. “And you can only experience when you're with it. Once it's gone, it’s gone, and that link to what was there before is and the entity of that neighborhood is erased…Why would you get rid of something that makes your town unique?”

Further, Dickey made the argument that demolishing historic structures is also an unwise move from an environmental standpoint.

“Every time you demolish something, especially something that's that old, you are releasing embodied carbons into the world because those carbons are stuck there,” he said. “The greenest building we have is the one that already exists. So why would a coastal town demolish structures when it has the most to lose with climate change and other endeavors of sea level rise?”

It was no surprise to Dickey that there was a large community response to the proposal to demolish two buildings in order to build the aforementioned housing development.

“People don't really think they have an opinion about buildings, until you ask them, and then everybody has an opinion,” he said. “And it's never just a wishy washy opinion, it's a firm opinion, and I love that about architecture.”

As of this writing, Dickey’s Instagram page has over 40,000 followers, and his posts from Warren all garnered hundreds of likes and comments. He said he’d love to come back during the summer time to see the town’s historic district alive with people, food, and music.

As a native of a small midwestern town in Illinois, he said that he never takes such small-town New England charm for granted.

“The history of New England is all tied together, but these small towns have so much of it too, and they're so unique in the United States in that they are all highly walkable, and highly human in scale.”

“Once you got to the Midwest that doesn’t exist,” he continued. “Like the Walmart parking lot is the size of downtown Warren.”