MAIN STREET NEWS

2018 Best Innovation Lenoir, NC Watch Video HERE! The City of Lenoir Main Street program had a desire to address misconceptions and stifle myths about redevelopment of downtown commercial properties. The $16,000 Moving Lenoir to the 2nd Floor program began with a workshop held locally for downtown Lenoir property owners, business owners, bankers, real estate agents, accountants, city council and administration, the Fire Marshal, and building inspectors. The workshop, ca

2018 Best Public-Private Partnership in Downtown Revitalization Goldsboro, NC Watch Video HERE! In partnership with the National Main Street Center, OneMain Financial created a grant program and awarded six $25,000 Action Grants for innovative community transformation projects across the country. Goldsboro, the first grant recipient, developed a project that would further enhance its economic development strategy as the center for arts and cultural development in Wayne Cou

2017 Small Town Main Street Awards – Promotion Warrenton and Edenton, NC The stamped passport qualifies tourists to register online for prizes and drawings. Discover History Worth Repeating was conceived as a collaboration project between the towns of Edenton, Halifax and Warrenton to promote tourism in some of North Carolina’s most historic communities. The promotion highlights seminal moments in state and national history such as the Halifax Resolves that predates the Dec

2017 Best Outdoor Space Improvement Sanford, NC Nine of the seventeen municipal service district blocks in downtown Sanford were transformed. Nine of the seventeen municipal service district blocks in downtown Sanford were transformed through an eighteen-month streetscape project that made downtown safer, more walkable and more aesthetically pleasing. The project included new sidewalks, trees and landscaping, underground utility work, new street lighting, and repaving street

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Wilson, NC The historic rehabilitation cost $432,000 and is fully occupied with City of Wilson administrative offices. The 1892 Rountree-Roney-Brett House, located at 206 Nash Street, was acquired by the City of Wilson in 2014. Situated in a highly visible West Nash Street location in historic downtown Wilson, the Queen Anne style house is a nationally designated landmark structure of substantial significance. The West Nash Street

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Tryon, NC The Missildines, Bank and Jackson buildings, located at 13-17 South Trade Street, Tryon, NC The Missildines, Bank and Jackson buildings, located at 13-17 South Trade Street, were built in the 1910's and 1920's at the geographic and cultural center of Tryon, NC. Located across the street from the train depot, the three buildings served locals and visitors as the home for a pharmacy, weavers, a grocery, hardware stores and oth

2017 Best Facade Rehabilitation Project for More Than $15,000 Boone, NC The Appalachian Theatre in Boone, NC The Appalachian Theatre, located at 555 West King Street, was designed by Clarence Coffey, who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright. It opened on November 14, 1938, and became the social center for Watauga County, showing films and presenting live entertainment. Over the years, the marquee was removed and the Art Deco facade was replaced. In 1982 it was converted to a t

2017 Best Facade Rehabilitation Project for Less Than $15,000 Smithfield, NC Facade improvement in Smithfield, NC In 2017, the former Capital Department Store, located at 224-228 East Main Street, underwent facade improvements because of a change in tenants, the need for building maintenance and the availability of an awning grant from the Downtown Smithfield Development Corporation. The facade improvement plan was developed by the North Carolina Main Street and Rural Plannin

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Goldsboro, NC Renovated Goldsboro Drug Company buiilding The Goldsboro Drug Company building, c. 1885, located at 101 North Center Street, was purchased by brothers Jim and Jeff Daniels in 2014 after sitting vacant for six years. The owners enlisted the architectural services of Maurer Architecture to develop a sensitive rehabilitation for a new use, utilizing historic tax credits and a facade grant from the City of Goldsboro. The bui

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Garner, NC Full Bloom Coffee and Craft Cafe in Garner, NC Garner entrepreneurs Patrick and Michelle Byrd completed a full renovation on a c. 1910 historic bank building located at 141 West Main Street in downtown Garner. The under-utilized, deteriorated property, last used as a barbershop, was renovated for the Full Bloom Coffee and Craft Cafe. The owners preserved the original vault in the building for their cafe kitchen, rehabilitat

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Elkin, NC Maggy's Place in downtown Elkin, NC The 523 square foot space, formerly used as offices for the Elkin Manufacturing Company and the Elkin and Alleghany Railroad in downtown Elkin, is the last remaining wooden structure on Main Street. The c. 1870 building located at 231 West Main Street was covered in aluminum siding. A major concern for the renovation was the condition of the wood underneath the siding, but the German lap s

2017 Best Endangered Properties Rescue Effort Goldsboro, NC John Street Properties downtown apartments in Goldsboro, NC 205, 207 and 209 North John Street are three valuable historic commercial properties that were once slated for demolition due to city council's frustration that stemmed from their negative appearance. Of the three, 85% of the square footage was used for junk storage and the remainder was used as a storefront church. It took ten years of aggressive work by th

2017 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Wilson, NC Revitalization in downtown Wilson, NC The 200 Block of South Street and 217 Brew Works redevelopment project was realized when developers Tom Curran and Barbie Conklin decided to put their efforts and financial commitment into Historic Downtown Wilson. This area of downtown was abandoned five years ago. The project serves as a backdrop to the $10 million Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. The 200 block of South Street, built in 1934 and

2017 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Roxboro, NC Hall's Way retail shopping center in Roxboro, NC Siblings Claudia, Cal, and Joe Berryhill, owners of Hall's Agri-Business, LLC, transformed the former 14,000 square foot Lewis Furniture Company Building, located at 44 Gordon Street, into a retail shopping destination in Uptown Roxboro. Purchased by their great-grandfather in the 1890's, the Berryhills felt that it was time for an extreme makeover. The building had historically hous

2017 Best Image-Building Campaign Garner, NC New website and branding for Garner, NC Downtown Garner's branding refresh began with a long-planned redesign of the downtown Garner website, www.downtowngarner.com , and morphed into a comprehensive, three-pronged approach to brand identity development and mobilization. Phase 1 of the project began with a mobile-responsive website built on a WordPress platform for easy updating and customization, plus a refreshed brand with a stan

2017 Best Downtown Special Event or Event Series Newton, NC Foothills Folk Art Festival in Newton, NC The Foothills Folk Art Festival is a family-friendly event that is produced in partnership between the Downtown Newton Development Association and the Hickory Museum of Art. The festival showcased 91 juried contemporary folk artists from throughout the Southeast showing and selling their work. 3,500 people attended the first event in downtown Newton, which had four food truck

2017 Best Downtown Special Event or Event Series Elizabeth City, NC SPLASH art event in Elizabeth City, NC The week-long annual art event called SPLASH takes place the first week of November in downtown Elizabeth City. During this week, artists and art lovers from all over converge on the "Harbor of Hospitality" to create, collaborate and cultivate the arts. Each year, there is open studio time for artists to create their works, master classes taught by well-known artists, an

2017 Best Innovation Clayton, NC The Paper Company co-working space in Clayton, NC 114 West Main Street began as a car dealership in the 1920's and in 1986, became the North Carolina Paper Company, a wholesale paper goods distributor. The Paper Company mostly used the building as storage, occupying less than 2,000 square feet. In 2016, Reid and Jaclyn Smith and Brad and Stephanie Carrol purchased the building with plans to convert it to office space, utilizing 10,000 square f

2017 Best Innovation Goldsboro, NC One of many "Cool Projects" in downtown Goldsboro, NC This project is a culmination of cool, fun, artful amenities in downtown Goldsboro that are intended to add interest to the district. The $16,000 in "Cool Projects" incorporates nine quote boards, a "We love Downtown" photo contest with over 7,000 impressions, public art sculptures on three blocks of Center Street, a public piano, three alley enhancements, "Do It Downtown" sidewalk signs,

2017 Best Public-Private Partnership Wake Forest, NC Friday Nights on White is a free concert series in Wake Forest, NC Friday Nights on White is a free concert series that is offered on the second Friday of each month, April through September, on White Street in downtown Wake Forest. The $56,000 concert series attracts 8,000 to 15,000 attendees each night. The series is a partnership between the Town of Wake Forest, thirty-five sponsors, the police and fire departments, volu

2017 Best Public-Private Partnership Goldsboro, NC Ribbon cutting for Goldsboro Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics Carolina Power and Light built 300 South Center Street in 1979, but when the company was purchased in the late 1990's, the building was abandoned and it sat vacant for more than 10 years. Even though it was actively marketed for six of those years, it drew little interest due to its condition, 11,000 square foot size, and custom designed layout. In 2016, the G

2016 Best Public Building Improvement Lexington, NC The Old Davidson County Courthouse in Uptown Lexington, NC The Davidson County Board of Commissioners voted to restore the exterior of the Old Davidson County Courthouse on South Main Street in Uptown Lexington in August of 2013. The iconic building is the home of the Davidson County Historical Museum. The Old Court House, constructed in 1858 in the Greek Revival architecture style, has been listed on the National Register o

2016 Best Outdoor Space Improvement Shelby, NC City Pavilion in Uptown Shelby, NC The City Pavilion, located on West Marion Street in Uptown Shelby is a covered, open-air, 8,500 square foot structure built to house the Foothills Farmers' Market, as well as concerts and other events. In addition to a large shelter, it features storage rooms, bathrooms, a walk-in cooler, ceiling fans and decorative festival lighting. It can hold close to 50 market vendors and has a capacity of

2016 Best Outdoor Space Improvement Bessemer City, NC The historic rehabilitation cost $432,000 and is fully occupied with City of Wilson administrative offices. Centennial Park was a 3,000 square foot green space created in 1993 in the heart of downtown Bessemer City. As the number of special events increased in recent years, downtown needed a more versatile space. The Centennial Park Revitalization Project involved reclaiming under-utilized city property and acquiring aband