A Quarter Century of Core Values
Trust salutes Main Street's milestone while charting its future.
BY RACHEL ADAMS
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The former Evans Hotel (right) is the centerpiece of downtown Hot Springs, S.D., one of the three original towns in which the Trust tested its Main Street ideas. (R. Johnson & Hot Springs Area Chamber of Commerce)
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This year marks the 25th anniversary
of the National Main Street Center, which has revived
downtowns in some 1,800 communities in more than 40
states (see "Paso
Robles Rising," p. 26). Commemorating this milestone,
the Trust hopes both to reinforce the focus on Main
Street participants and to work with new communities.
In January, a task force was formed that, coordinating
with other Trust programs and national and state preservation
organizations, will promote the Main Street program
throughout the year.
"This is the 25th year not only
of the Main Street Center," says Doug Loescher,
executive director of community revitalization at
the Trust, "but somewhat of the movement itself."
Main Street grew out of efforts that began in 1977,
when the Trust, concerned about the decline of historic
downtowns in small cities, launched the Main Street
Project, testing a new concept of revitalization in
three communities—Galesburg, Ill.; Madison, Ind.;
and Hot Springs, S.D.
Three years later, the Main Street Center began in
earnest. "We took the lessons learned in the
original project and started to apply them nationally,"
says Loescher. "We began by building state-level
partnerships to leverage state and local resources.
That method just took off right away."
By 1990, 600 communities had adopted the Main Street
approach, a four-point strategy that creates an organizational
structure from a town's diverse groups, markets its
downtown, designs architectural and streetscape improvements,
and restructures the community's economy. Main Street
plans were also introduced in the neighborhood commercial
zones of such large cities as Chicago, San Diego,
and Boston.
Main Street is concentrating more on urban projects,
learning from the highly successful Boston program.
"Our scope has really expanded in the past five
to 10 years," says Loescher. "We're
becoming much more active in neighborhoods of varying
economic levels, as in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.,
which has our fastest-growing program, with 12 neighborhoods participating. The newest
venture is in downtown Milwaukee."
The Trust is celebrating the 25-year mark by holding
special programs at the National Main Streets Conference
in Baltimore in May; featuring retrospective coverage
of veteran communities in its monthly Main Street
News; making Main Street a focal point of educational
and other sessions at the National Preservation Conference
in Portland, Ore., in the fall; seeking new corporate
sponsors; and increasing the program's visibility
through the media and a
revamped Main Street Web site.
"Lately, many local programs have developed that
parallel the Main Street technique," says Loescher.
"We're going to use the anniversary to create a link
between these movements and our own and explore the
essential role we all have in rejuvenating historic
areas."
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