Nearly slated for demolition 30 years ago, downtown Cedar Falls has experienced an amazing transformation through its revitalization journey using the Main Street Approach. Photo credit: Cedar Falls Community Main Street
An Incremental Evolution
The term “Main Street,” has come to mean so much in our society. To some, it’s just the name of a street. To others, it’s the collection of old buildings, maybe that place where people use to go shopping. In some cases, Main Street is used as a synonym for downtown. More recently, the term “Main Street” gets used to represent small business or, more directly, the opposite of big business. No matter how you interpret it, Main Street symbolizes so much of who we are as a people. Main Street is a direct connection to our history, an indicator of a community’s economic health, as well as a representation of an evolution of our culture that is constantly occurring.
That evolution, and the acceptance of a place’s progression over time, becomes an important element of a revitalization process that is often overlooked. How many times have you heard something like this, “I remember when everyone came downtown. We had two men’s clothing stores, three women’s clothing stores, and a general store. You could really get anything you needed right here in our downtown.” That idealistic memory of downtown is just that, a memory. A recollection of what once was but may never be again.
Too many times, we use the memory of the past as our vision for the future. This becomes a road block as a place begins its revitalization process. We must realize that after a place has deteriorated incrementally over time, it often reaches a point (economically, physically, and/or socially) where it’s just not the same. Its changed into something new that we didn’t plan for, expect, or, at least at the beginning, want. The old hotel has been adaptively used as apartments: “Well that’s great, but it’s not a hotel anymore.” Or the old hardware store is now an artist incubator: “It’s wonderful the space is being used, but now we have ‘those people’ here."
Our instinct is to retreat to what is familiar, what downtown was in the past. The reality is that downtown will be different in the future. It will be changed. That change will welcome new types of businesses, new uses for downtown spaces, and new faces as leaders. The acceptance of change can be one of the most difficult elements when working with a place but, like a grieving process, we must learn to accept that the old ‘us’ is gone before we can be open to the idea that the new ‘us’ will be different. Different in new exciting ways that will position our downtowns to thrive in the next chapter of our community’s evolution.
A Catalyst for Change
In the early 1980s, the National Main Street Center introduced a pioneering approach to downtown revitalization. The Main Street Approach offers community-based revitalization initiatives with a practical, adaptable framework for downtown transformation that is tailored to local conditions. The approach helps communities get started with revitalization and grows with them over time.
Main Street empowers communities to set their own destinies. While revitalization is challenging work, the Main Street program offers a roadmap for locally-owned, locally-driven prosperity. Across the country, thousands of communities have used the Main Street Approach to transform their economies, leverage local leadership, and improve overall quality of life. Through this empowerment, the approach assists communities with the evolution and changes that will inevitably occur during revitalization efforts.
The Approach at Work
Successful communities have learned to hone the Main Street program’s balance of historic preservation, creativity, business support, and organizational basics. The following section will explore snapshot case studies from three central Iowa Main Street programs. These stories demonstrate rural revitalization against all odds, a diverse urban program utilizing community-initiated development to lead by example, and a successful traditional retail district in the midst of its continued evolutionary process.
The rehabilitation of the E.E. Warren Opera House in Greenfield became an important turning point in the community’s confidence to tackle big downtown challenges. Photo credit: Main Street Iowa
Greenfield, Iowa (Population 1,982)
Greenfield is the prototypical rural, county-seat downtown. With its central, tree-lined courthouse square, intact one to three story early 20th century commercial buildings, and locally owned businesses, downtown Greenfield has an intimate historic district character. Dominated by the grand E.E. Warren Opera House, downtown had seen its better days upon the community entering the Main Street program in 1995.
From the beginning, the revitalization of the long vacant opera house was a primary goal of the local Main Street program. Understanding the daunting task ahead and the community’s uncertainty of the badly deteriorated building’s future, the local program embarked on a process built on incremental improvements and creative use of the undeveloped space all while working towards a long-view vision. Through the 20+ years of the active revitalization process, the desired end use of the spaces evolved as opportunities arose, partners were added to the vision, and passionate volunteers joined the effort.
The E.E. Warren Opera House officially reopened in 2012 as the Warren Cultural Center. The creative use of the spaces, including a partnership and the simultaneous rehabilitation of the adjacent Hotel Greenfield, enabled the project team and community to reimagine what the future of use would be for the grand building. Including a retail space, leasable office spaces, overnight lodging options, and the main entertainment venue, the Warren Cultural Center was able to diversify its use of space and sources of income to be more financially sustainable.
The size, scale, and sophistication of this amazing project provided the opportunity for the community, and region, to experience how Greenfield was not going to let major challenges stand in the way of a bright future. Greenfield demonstrated the payoff of an incremental process paired with a bold vision for the new chapter of downtown. The Warren Cultural Center project serves as a catalyst for other projects in the district to think big and take action incrementally.
Des Moines’ 6th Avenue Corridor, Iowa (Population 203,433)
Des Moines’ 6th Avenue Corridor Main Street district is located just north of downtown Des Moines and is one of the state’s most culturally and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods. Once the center of the independent community of North Des Moines, the corridor evolved in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a mixed-use street with two strong commercial nodes. Bisected by a major north-south connector street and burdened with a series of demolitions and deteriorated structures, the 6th Avenue Corridor is visually no longer a traditional historic commercial district. This presents a number of challenges and opportunities that require an adjusted implementation of the Main Street Approach.
Beginning its Main Street program journey in 2009, the 6th Avenue Corridor invested its first years into developing capacity for the program and finding new ways to engage with district stakeholders. Through the years, the program has helped facilitate many new construction projects that have begun to change the appearance of the corridor. Facing difficult rehabilitation realities, the Main Street program is positioning itself as a development lead for some of the district’s most critical and catalytic projects.
Currently spearheading the redevelopment of the historic North Des Moines City Hall building for mixed-use opportunities and the redevelopment of a late 19th century carriage house that will serve as the organization’s office, the program is demonstrating a new perspective of investment on 6th Avenue Corridor. This model of leading by example, in combination with strengthened City partnerships and a leadership role with streetscape improvements, is positioning the district to experience a major economic, physical, and social transformation in the coming years.
Spearheaded by the local Main Street program, the historic North Des Moines City Hall Building will be a catalyst for additional investment and social change in Des Moines’ 6th Avenue Corridor. Photo Credit: Main Street Iowa
West Des Moines’ Valley Junction, Iowa (Population 56,609)
Valley Junction, West Des Moines’ original name, is the historic core of one of Iowa’s fastest growing communities. With the feel of a small town, the historic Valley Junction district is tucked away in a central location in the Des Moines metro. Through the years, the economic niche of the Valley Junction district has evolved from its neighborhood-serving roots to an antique dominated focus in the 1970s-80s, to its more recent destination retail niche. It is safe to say, that the district has always seen some level of economic success. A major reason for this continued success is the ability for community leaders to be proactive as economic opportunities and trends evolve.
This progressive mindset is now positioning Valley Junction for its next evolution. An evolution that is proactively adding capacity and opportunity to an already strong foundation of neighborhood assets. Initiatives to add urban-style living options, new dining and nighttime establishments, and revise the utilization of downtown spaces have sparked major adaptive use projects that are challenging the norms of district resident’s emotional ties to the Valley Junction area.
Projects like the adaptive use of a historic neighborhood elementary school as affordable, artist-oriented housing have brought some of these emotions to the surface. This highlights the reality that our built environment plays a much more important role than just the physical structure. In this case, the school’s closing marked the end, the death, of a community’s shared memory of that space. While the structure’s continued use does support its continued life, without an opportunity for the community to collectively grieve the loss of that past reality, the openness to accept its new use becomes difficult.
This evolutionary challenge of historic preservation is replaying repeatedly in Valley Junction. These projects are driving the district’s continued evolution but also forcing the local partners to balance elements of change with acknowledgements of the past. Acknowledgments demonstrated through increased outreach and connection with the neighborhood, celebrating history through new National Register listings, and creating financial incentives to support historic rehabilitations of the district’s unique architecture and character.
The historic Lyric Theater, long used for the landmark Theatrical Shop, was awarded a National Trust for Historic Preservation Partners in Preservation Grant in 2017 and will be a catalyst for dramatic visual change in the Valley Junction district. Photo credit: Historic Valley Junction Foundation
Empowering Change
The American journalist Sydney J. Harris once said, “What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” This quote sums up a difficult reality for local revitalization efforts. In order to be successful, revitalization needs to be a positive force for change but also a mediator of emotional connections to a community’s comfort zone.
Development processes, whether personal or community-wide, will never be linear. There are going to be periods of time when change comes easy, other times when it feels that nothing is going to done, and still other times when we feel that sense of déjà vu, that sense that we have tried this before.
As each place walks through its own process of evolution, acceptance, and change, it is important for a community
to build a foundation of tools to navigate the emotional connections of change. Those tools include:
- Building an inclusive, diverse, and transparent network of support. This network of support, communication, and encouragement becomes the basis for an honest relationship with the community.
- Working to collectively develop a vision that provides a long view for the district but focuses on a strategy of incrementalism to celebrate small wins throughout the process. These minor, consistent wins not only build confidence but also demonstrate change in a more digestible fashion.
- Strengthening the community’s “collective emotional intelligence” to build awareness of the changes ahead, the challenges that accompany them, and how those changes will impact the strongest asset of any place, its people.
- Developing leaders with the perseverance and patience needed to lean into the many challenges throughout the journey. Developing these qualities with leaders at all levels creates a sustainable leadership network as well as a dispersed impact of challenge’s impacts on a broader base of people rather than on one key volunteer or staff person.
These tools are inherently built into the Main Street Approach and are characteristics of local places that have experienced revitalization success. By acknowledging that revitalization is more than simply driving change but also about supporting the personal connections to a place, local leaders can use the emotional connections relating to change as an empowered tool. This can position a local revitalization program to be more engaged through honest conversations with the community about the impacts of change. It can also give a place permission to celebrate the past in a different way, to build acceptance that the new version of who we are going to be is different, and that is not only okay, it’s exciting.
That is, until things change again…
Photographed above: Creating unique spaces and places where people want to be has become critical to a downtown’s success as demonstrated in this vacated alley in Oskaloosa. Photo credit: Oskaloosa News/Ken Allsup
About the author:
Michael Wagler is the Main Street Iowa State Coordinator. Wagler is a life-long preservationist with over 20 years of experience in the Main Street and historic preservation fields.
This article was originally published in the Alliance Review, a quarterly journal of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions.
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Roslindale Village: 38 Years at the Vanguard of Building Resiliency and Reimagining Spaces
Explore the resiliency and future-focused mindset of Roslindale Village Main Street, one of the first urban Main Street Programs in the nation.
Peak Immersive Learning: A Snapshot of Mobile Workshops Main Street Now 2023
Preview a selection of the 12 unique mobile workshops on offer at Main Street Now 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.
A vendor serves beverages at the Roslindale Summer Farmers Market in 2022. © Bruce Spero Photography
Main Spotlight: Introducing the Main Street Foundations Series
We’re excited to announce a new suite of resources designed for Main Street! The Main Street Foundations Series provides an overview of each Point through four comprehensive introductory videos, one-page guides, materials from our resource center, and more.
Main Spotlight: Top 7 Blog Posts of 2022
From the ongoing pivots needed to meet changing community needs to the timeless power of place, these are the most popular blog posts we published this year.
What Mary Means to Me
Todd Wolford, executive director of Downtown Wytheville Inc and recipient of the 2022 Mary Means Leadership Award, reflects on his Main Street career.
Main Spotlight: Reflections from the 2022 Community Transformation Workshop in Wyoming
Jackie Swihart, Program Officer for MSA, shares some key takeaways from the three-day event.
Laramie, WY © Main Street America
Main Spotlight: 30 Years of Dynamic Growth Across Illinois Main Street
Illinois Main Street's work over the last 30 years and the exciting projects they are planning in the future.
Alton, IL © Alton Main Street
Main Spotlight: Farmers Markets as a Transformation Strategy for Main Streets
Learn how Main Streets from California to Florida have used Farmers Markets to transform their communities and achieve Main Street goals.
Main Spotlight: Nine Years at Main Street — Lessons and Reflections
At the Opening Plenary at the Main Street Now Conference in Richmond, Virginia, Patrice Frey shared lessons and reflections from her past nine years at Main Street.
Farewell from Patrice Frey, President and CEO, Main Street America
Outgoing President and CEO Patrice Frey closes out her tenure at Main Street America and transitions into a new role.
Main Spotlight: Announcing the 2022 Main Street America Designated Communities and 2021 Reinvestment Statistics
Main Street America congratulates our 2022 designated communities and explores the impact of the Main Street Movement.
Toccoa, GA © Steph Maley
Main Spotlight: Reflections on the Evolution of Main Street
Mary Means, founder of the Main Street Movement, reflects on her experiences at Main Street Now 2022 and shares advice for local leaders.
Announcing the 2022 Great American Main Street Award Winners
Meet the winners of this award recognizing Main Street excellence.
Community Spotlight: Welcoming Parramore to Orlando Main Streets!
Meet Parramore, a historically African-American community in Orlando, Florida.
Orlando, FL © Tyla Harrington
Community Spotlight: Women Leaders Series — Week Four
Each week this Women's History Month, Main Street America is spotlighting the stories of women leaders in local and coordinating Main Street programs.
Community Spotlight: Women Leaders Series — Week Three
Each week this Women's History Month, Main Street America is spotlighting the stories of women leaders in local and coordinating Main Street programs.
Community Spotlight: Women Leaders Series — Week Two
Each week this Women's History Month, Main Street America is spotlighting the stories of women leaders in local and coordinating Main Street programs.
Community Spotlight: Women Leaders Series — Week One
Each week this Women's History Month, Main Street America is spotlighting the stories of women leaders in local and coordinating Main Street programs.
INVEST South/West Chicago Reaches Two-year Milestone
Main Street America's partners in Chicago celebrate two years of training and technical assistance in the city.
Chicago, IL © Main Street America
Main Spotlight: Better Community Planning & Economic Development Series with Ed McMahon
Leverage NC, a partnership between North Carolina Main Street and the North Carolina League of Municipalities, hosted a four-part webinar series titled Better Community Planning & Economic Development led by Ed McMahon, Chair Emeritus of Main Street America and a leading national authority on land use policy and economic development.
Community Spotlight: Main Street America’s Field Team Gets Back on the Road
After many zoom meetings, our road warriors are back visiting communities and providing technical assistance.
Washington, IA © Kathy La Plante
2020 Year in Review: A Letter to the Network
President and CEO Patrice Frey reflects on 2020 and the early events of 2021.
Florence, SC © True Light Photography
HartBeat of Main Street Grant Program: First Round Recipient Spotlights
These 67 recipients from across the country ranged from bakeries and boutiques to salons and museums, but they all shared a commitment to the program's goals of responding and adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic and helping to revitalize and strengthen older and historic downtown commercial districts.
New Research from Brookings and the National Main Street Center on the Value of Main Street Organizations
The Brookings Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking released a new series of research briefs focused on the role that place governance organizations, like Main Street programs, play in revitalizing rural downtowns and promoting equitable rural economic and community development.
Congratulations to the 2020 MSARP Recipients!
Meet the latest graduates of our certificate program for leaders in commercial district revitalization.
Main Spotlight: Developing a Toolbox to Help Manage Growth on Main Street
Georgetown has developed a strong Downtown Master Plan that helps serve as a guide-point for planning efforts in downtown
Announcing the 2020 Mary Means Leadership Award Recipient
Meet Sharon Jablonski, the Director of Morganton Main Street in Morganton, North Carolina, and the first recipient of the Mary Means Leadership Award.
Announcing the 2020 Great American Main Street Award Winners
Congratulations to these Main Street programs for their fantastic work!
Community Spotlight: Missouri Main Street Connection Leads the Iowa Community Expedition
Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC) had the opportunity to take Missouri Executive Directors and other community representatives on the Iowa Community Expedition
District Spotlight: Pontiac, Michigan
In response, UrbanMain and Main Street Oakland County joined forces in March 2018 to assist Pontiac stakeholders in putting their downtown organization back on a positive track, making Pontiac the first community in Michigan to participate in the UrbanMain initiative.
2018 Partners in Preservation: Main Streets Winning Sites
American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street America announced the winners of the 2018 Partners in Preservation: Main Streets campaign.
2018 Community Transformation Workshop Recap
An essential component of the Main Street America Institute, the three-day in-person workshop gives participants hands-on tools to enact revitalization projects in their communities.
A Statewide Movement Improving West Virginia Main Streets
Since 2013, Try This West Virginia has sought to improve health environments in local communities as a collaboration of organizations working together to combat the health challenges facing West Virginians.
Community Spotlight: Main Street Hampton
Main Street Hampton hosted a Food and Friends Farm-to-Table dinner at the Rustic Brew during Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week.
Community Spotlight: Partners in Preservation 2018
From community gathering spaces to retail incubators, from small towns to big cities – this year’s projects and communities are a testament to the diversity of Main Streets across the country.
Community Spotlight: Ames, Iowa
Downtown Ames hosted a festival for the 46th annual RAGBRAI race (The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa).
7 Ways To Bring Your Main Street On Screen
You don’t need to be a big-name district to make a video that goes viral; you just need to know what you’re doing.
Comcast Newsmakers: Revitalizing Downtown
Matt Wagner, National Main Street Center's Vice President of Revitalization Programs, discusses competitive advantages, incrementalism and the power of the Main Street America network
Community Spotlight: Main Street Homer, Louisiana
Main Street Homer (Homer, Louisiana) was awarded a $25,000 A Community Thrives social impact grant from Gannett/USA Today Network to create an arts center with affordable artist studios and classroom/event space.
Main Street Roots Run Deep in Downtown Wytheville
Since starting as Executive Director, Todd has helped the organization achieve Virginia Main Street Designation Status and national Accreditation.
Announcing the 2018 Great American Main Street Award Winners
The National Main Street Center, Inc., announced Downtown Oregon City, Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency, and Howell Main Street as the 2018 Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA) winners during its annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Main Streets in Action
We rolled out four new Main Street America videos highlighting the power of the Main Street movement, Main Street Approach, economic impact of Main Street, and the incredible volunteers that make Main Street's grassroots network so effective.
Community Spotlight: Ridgefield Main Street
Ridgefield Main Street is an energetic, up-and-coming Washington Main Street program located just north of Vancouver, Washington.
Want to do something big? Start small.
A series of small, incremental improvements, when taken together, provide momentum for long-term economic transformation and improved quality of life in a community.
Michigan Main Street Refresh Implementation: The Refresh from Our Communities’ Perspective
Here's a bit of background on each of the communities. Read on for the Refresh Implementation Q&A.
Announcing the 2017 Great American Main Street Award Winners
The National Main Street Center, Inc. announced the 2017 Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA) during its annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Reality of Main Street — Letter from the President
The National Main Street Center and the Brookings Institution have jointly authored a response to Mr. Hyman’s piece, The Reality of Main Street, that is featured on Brookings’ blog.
Michigan Main Street Refresh Implementation: Our Process and Lessons Learned So Far
Michigan Main Street Center was the first Coordinating Program to implement the new Main Street approach on a large scale. In this article, they share their robust process and valuable lessons.
The Reality of Main Street
There is another way for smaller communities to compete in today’s economy and we believe a strong main street strategy is at the heart of it.
The Myth of Main Street? Letter from the President
Letter from past MSA President, Patrice Frey
The Lowdown in Downtown LaBelle
Fritz the dog has made his way into the hearts of the residents of LaBelle, Florida, and helped our Main Street Community find a way to make what we do more noticeable.
Strategic Planning Through Transformation Strategies – Saline, Michigan
Back in October 2015, we introduced the three key components of the refreshed Main Street Approach: inputs, outputs and Community Transformation Strategies.
Revitalization and Main Street Transformation
For a lucky few downtowns, greatness may happen effortlessly with a strong sense of place that seems to develop organically and simply sustain itself. For most places, success doesn’t happen by chance.
Revisit Your Community’s Unique Assets: Connecting Asset-Based Economic Development to Community Transformation Strategies
This need for change results from the heavy emphasis on three components of the refreshed Main Street Approach.
The 2016 Great American Main Street Award Winners
The 2016 winners are a diverse group in geography and character, but together demonstrate the broad applicability of the Main Street Approach:
Main Street Nation Radio
The first official show under the Main Street Nation banner aired in June 2015 on WJR-760 AM Detroit.
The Path To The Future
The economic value of historic preservation on Main Street.
Refresh Demonstration Project Sites: Learning Labs for the Updated Main Street Approach
A series of demonstration projects providing the opportunity to test new strategies on the ground, learn from practitioners, and refine the approach.
Why Business Retention and Expansion Plans are Important for Downtowns
A business retention and expansion plan, properly implemented, not only helps keep businesses open but possibly even helps them expand.
Wisconsin Main Street: 27 Years of People, Places and Progress
While there have been over $1.2 billion in public and private investment in Wisconsin Main Street communities over the past 27 years, what really makes it special are the people and places that have been involved.
Pop-Up Art Tour
Main Street Bartow's empty storefronts become pop-up art galleries to promote economic development.
A Walk Through Rehoboth Beach Main Street
Although a “beach town,” Rehoboth Beach is open 365 days a year, and with that has the unique challenge of catering to both year-round residents and tourists within a wide range of ages, interests and economic levels
Independent We Stand Makes Main Streets a Priority
In communities across the country, hardworking business owners and buy local advocates come together to foster an organized effort to reinvent and revitalize Main Streets and downtown districts.
Announcing the 2015 Great American Main Street Award Winners
The National Main Street Center is pleased to announce that Cape Girardeau, Mo., Montclair Center, N.J., and Rawlins, Wyo. were selected as the 2015 Great American Main Street Award® (GAMSA) winners.
