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Marion, Iowa © Tasha Sams
We work in collaboration with thousands of local partners and grassroots leaders across the nation who share our commitment to advancing shared prosperity, creating resilient economies, and improving quality of life.
Emporia, Kansas © Emporia Main Street
Made up of small towns, mid-sized communities, and urban commercial districts, the thousands of organizations, individuals, volunteers, and local leaders that make up Main Street America™ represent the broad diversity that makes this country so unique.
Chicago, Illinois © Main Street America
Looking for strategies and tools to support you in your work? Delve into the Main Street Resource Center and explore a wide range of resources including our extensive Knowledge Hub, professional development opportunities, field service offerings, advocacy support, and more!
Waterloo, Iowa © Main Street Waterloo
Your one-stop-shop for all the latest stories, news, events, and opportunities – including grants and funding programs – across Main Street.
Kendall Whittier — Tulsa, Oklahoma © Kendall Whittier Main Street
Join us in our work to advance shared prosperity, create strong economies, and improve quality of life in downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.
COVID-19 has posed significant challenges to Main Streets throughout the country, and the pandemic continues to test downtown districts today. To support Georgia Main Streets throughout the recovery process and position them for long-term sustainability, Main Street America launched the Georgia Main Street Innovation Grant Program, made possible through generous support from The Williams Family Foundation of Georgia.
The program provided five Georgia Main Street Programs $10,000 each last fall to help fund innovative revitalization efforts to address the current and/or legacy impacts of COVID-19. The program was open to all programs affiliated with Georgia Main Street that have an active Main Street America membership. From entrepreneur and small business support programs to marketing initiatives and placemaking projects, the winners used funds for creative and out-of-the-box ideas around COVID-recovery. Learn more about the winning ideas and their progress below.
Left: Maria Elias with her mural "Unidos." Center: A mural submission for the Athens Arts Alley. Right: Eli Saragoussi poses with her mural. Photos courtesy of Athens DDA
The Athens Art Alley is transforming a seldom-used, forgotten alley into an engaging, art-filled space that will encourage the community to come together. The Art Alley will attract people to the commercial district, bring attention to the creative economy, and provide desperately needed recovery assistance to local artists. The Athens Downtown Development Authority (DDA), in collaboration with their partners, the Athens Area Arts Council and the Lyndon House Arts Center, issued a call for mural submissions inspired by recovery, advocacy, activism, optimism, with a focus on recruiting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists. After receiving over 40 applications, seven artists were selected, with six of the artists identifying as BIPOC or LGBTQ+. The murals will be painted on panels that will be mounted to brick walls along the alley. Athens DDA expects to have the project completed by September of this year.
The Yard project will turn an underutilized downtown building on a sleepy street into a vibrant courtyard for food trucks to congregate and provide unique food choices for the community. Serving as a small business incubator, The Yard will help food truck operators expand into permanent locations downtown or provide an opportunity for existing downtown restaurants to launch a truck. Grant program funds are being used to create onsite handicap-accessible public restrooms, which will be crucial in a food courtyard development. So far, Tifton Downtown Development Authority has completed architectural renderings of the restrooms, applied for the permits for restroom construction, and completed general cleaning and maintenance. The Yard is currently hosting events and has rented small portable restrooms for the time being. The project is expected to be completed in mid-September.
Grassroots Coffee in Thomasville, Georgia receives a grant through the Main Street program's ecommerce matching grant program. Photo courtesy of Thomasville Main Street.
Throughout the pandemic, the biggest challenge reported by local businesses in Thomasville was creating and improving their online presence. TheCity of Thomasville Main Street program is hoping to address this challenge through an ecommerce matching grant program. The program will encourage business expansion and retention by investing in e-commerce as an additional revenue stream for their brick-and-mortar downtown business. Thomasville Main Street has marketed the opportunity to local businesses through their website, merchant meetings, city council, meetings, in-store discussions, and more. They have launched an application and are working with businesses to provide proper documentation to complete the application prior to the November 2021 deadline. Thomasville hopes to continue the project with additional funding, so they can continue to supporting their small businesses in ramping up their online presence.
Left: Seaside Sweets owner Rachel Jones and local news reporter Mariah Congedo during a SBDC site visit. Photo credit: Sarah Bernzott. Right: Kelly Swope (left), owner of Kelly and Company Essential Oil and SBDC instructor Nadia Osman during a site visit.
In a survey of their local small business owners, Tybee Island Downtown Development Authority (DDA) found that one of their top concerns was getting education to pivot their businesses for a post-pandemic world. Tybee Island has fulfilled this need for education with a pilot program to provide hands-on coaching to local business owners who need to flip their business plan for continued survival. Playing off their coastal location, the education program was called "Beach Business Bootcamp: Learn How to Flip Not Flop Your Business." In collaboration with the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center, Tybee Island DDA ran the bootcamp from April to August 2021. The virtual bootcamp was comprised of four modules, with opportunities for business to discuss challenges and share feedback, as well as an opportunity for the local SBDC trainer to visit each business and provide in-person counseling. Two training sessions per module helped local businesses expand their online presence and boost ecommerce capabilities. Twelve businesses completed the bootcamp, and participating businesses have seen a dramatic increases in social media engagement.
Downtown Valdosta created digital and video content to help drive shoppers into their brick-and-mortar businesses downtown, with a focus on the 2020 holiday shopping season. The videos told the stories of small business owners, appealed to the idea of shopping local, and captured how businesses were creating a safe shopping experience for the community. Over the past few months, Valdosta has been working with a video production company to help small businesses create additional videos capturing customers and community members explaining the importance of shopping local. Beyond the video campaigns, Valdosta started a downtown podcast called Beyond the Bricks, which highlights business owners and their stories and aims to bring positive attention to local small business owners.
At Fort Vancouver in Vancouver, Washington, Native Hawaiians played a critical role in the success of the Hudson Bay Company. Today, Vancouver’s Hawaiian history and heritage plays a crucial role in efforts to reenergize the city’s historic downtown.
Understanding the Advisory Council on Historic Preservations report on federal historic preservation standards.
Toccoa, GA © Steph Maley
In this video, learn more about the Williams’ family story, how the business is helping to revive downtown Helena, and the impact they’re having on a national level.
Learn how Albany, Georgia, recognizes their civil rights legacy and supports the African American community today.
Kathy LaPlante shares her experiences visiting Vermont communities during their recovery from devastating floods.
© Tripp Muldrow
In honor of National Disaster Preparedness Month, we are providing some practical steps that Main Streets can take to prepare for the next, inevitable disaster.
© Adog
Learn the historic and cultural significance of neon signs, and strategies that Main Streets can use to preserve these unique assets.
Main Street America is leading a coalition urging that the EPA make available the GGRF funds for adaptive reuse and location-efficient projects because of the substantial greenhouse gas emissions reduction offered by such developments.
On May 9, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023 which included a cultural district located within a designated Main Street America community.
Miami, FL © NTHP
From 19th-century mill girls to Maine's mill redevelopments and the regional manufacturers of tomorrow, learn about the amazing history and promise of the New England mill.
Biddeford, ME © Heart of Biddeford
Learn the unique history of Folsom, New Mexico, and how they are working with New Mexico MainStreet today.
This article was published on January 10, 2023, by Next City, a nonprofit news organization focused on socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable urban practices.
Learn how Rethos, the Coordinating partner for Minnesota Main Streets, has partnered with Reuse Minnesota and the Minnesota GreenCorps Program to encourage community-led preservation.
© Rethos
Four recommendations that Main Street districts can apply right now to start preparing for the next natural disaster.
Learn how Main Streets can partner with the National Trust Community Investment Corporation to take advantage of the Historic Tax Credit.
© Troy Thies
Ed McMahon shares recommendations and insights on how Main Streets can use sign design to improve sense of place on Main Streets.
Main Street organizations and other public-private partnerships can provide the focal point needed to fulfill the large number of roles required to reuse or redevelop a house of worship in a way that benefits the community.
Learn about The Bottom, a historic African-American community in Thomasville, Georgia, and efforts to preserve it's history and share it's story.
Thomasville, GA © City of Thomasville
New Mexico MainStreet partnered with Main Street America to utilize a NPS Main Street Facade Improvement Grant.
Gallup, NM © New Mexico MainStreet
How do those amazing Main Street rehabilitation projects happen? And what policies and public support make them happen? In the Behind the Ribbon Cutting series, we look at a project or businesses from concept to opening day to break down the partnerships and funding brought to bear and recognize how we can advocate for policies and resources for revitalization across the country.
Astoria, OR © ADHDA
Main Street America's GIS intern shares the results of a project to map the boundaries of all designated Main Street districts.
Main Street America welcomed the National Association For Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) to our Twitter channel to share stories of resiliency in Latino communities.
Main Street America welcomed to our Instagram Stories the Allapattah Collaborative CDC, a Main Street program in Miami, Florida.
Miami, FL © Allapattah Collaborative CDC
We sat down with Lindsey Wallace, Director of Strategic Projects and Design Services and manager of the the National Park Service Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program, to learn more about her perspective on disaster preparedness on Main Street.
The Association for Preservation Technology International (APT) Main Street Task Force is working to increase education, compile examples and data, and provide recommended changes at the national level where necessary.
Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott joined Texas Main Street and Texas Historical Commission staff, management and Commissioners to welcome Temple and Pearsall into the 89-city Texas Main Street network.
As part of the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta’s Grants to Green program, Maine was designated one of two national replication sites.
After more than five years of consistent advocacy, the 20 percent historic tax credit (HTC) has survived the most significant rewrite of the tax code in more than 30 years.
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Main Street merchants in two communities in Michigan and Kentucky, as well as a fellow Texas Main Street community, jumped in to help their Texas colleagues.
In the midst of this human and cultural disaster, the Main Street program, managed by the Ellicott City Partnership, collaborated with Preservation Maryland to provide a variety of disaster relief financing that helped expedite the recovery.
In 2016, the North Carolina Main Street & Rural Planning Center partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Interior Architecture (UNCG) to provide design assistance to Main Street communities.
In 2015, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to engage Wisconsin Main Street organizations and farmers markets in the Metrics and Indicators for Impact – Farmers Markets (MIFI-FM) toolkit.
With 413 National Park areas¹ and over 1,000 Main Street America programs, it’s no surprise that many of the communities following the Four Point Approach serve as gateways to our national parks.
Eight historic downtowns in Vermont turned massive flooding into opportunities to build back stronger than before the flood.
As living pieces of American history, our Main Street communities each have a story to tell. It’s up to us to bring those stories to life.
The economic value of historic preservation on Main Street.
We measure the effectiveness of our last marketing campaign, weigh whether the investment in new street lights outweigh the political capital spent, and debate if the thousands of volunteer hours are worth the impacts created by a one-day event.
Main Street Iowa, a program of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center, created a one-of-a-kind three-year program to provide help for performance venues located in Main Street districts.
