2016 Main Streets Across America

CXFT9N min

Portsmouth, New Hampshire – Congress Street

Main Streets 2016: New Hampshire

To gaze down Congress Street from Market Square is to peer directly into American history. The distinctive Colonial, Georgian and Federal style buildings here and throughout Portsmouth are the very image of an old-time, waterside New England city.

The imposing brick and stone downtown edifices no longer serve the port and shipbuilding businesses that made Portsmouth one of the earliest and wealthiest cities in colonial America. Instead, today they house much of the retail, professional and artistic enterprise that has transformed Portsmouth into a thriving commercial hub on New Hampshire’s seacoast.

Although a fairly small city, Portsmouth draws tourists and residents from near and far for work, entertainment and culture. Market Square Day, for example, is a celebration of food, bands, artisans and entertainment right downtown — and Market Square, at the top of Congress Street, is the natural jumping-off point for any visit to Portsmouth.

Historic North Church, built in 1855 to replace the original 1712 meeting house, dominates the square. The Portsmouth Athenaeum, occupying a distinctive red-brick and white-columned building on a corner of Market Square, is a “nonprofit membership library” and museum that was incorporated in 1817. It’s a place to borrow a book, see an art show or research your family’s genealogy.

Walking along Congress, you might be drawn into Diversions Puzzles & Games, a place to rediscover the classic board games you remember. If you get hungry, stop in to Jumpin’ Jays Fish Cafe, a casual seafood eatery that’s a favorite among locals, then relax over coffee and dessert at Popovers on the Square, a casual café back on Market Square.

Along with the restaurants, cafes and locally owned stores on or around Congress are some of the many attractions and points of history that make the city what it is. This mixture of historic and contemporary inspired the National Trust for Historic Preservation to recognize Portsmouth in 2008 as one of its “Dozen Distinctive Destinations.”

A few blocks from Congress Street, don’t miss the Strawberry Banke Museum, located in the waterfront neighborhood that dates to 1695. This is where Portsmouth began. The district is a salty, scenic treasure that was saved from urban renewal several decades ago, and the museum depicts the heritage of this quintessential New England port community.

Market Square Day photo courtesy of Pro Portsmouth

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Missouri Primary min

Parkville, Missouri – Main Street

It’s small, with just 5,500 people — but Parkville, Missouri, alongside the Missouri River on the state’s western edge, has a historic downtown whose compact charm is something to remember. Main Street shines with character and hospitality, and it’s an appealing place where townspeople and visitors come together to enjoy this welcoming community.

Parkville’s Main Street Association is an active volunteer group that was first formed after a major flood in 1993 to help rebuild and revitalize the community center. The group follows the guidelines of the National Main Street Center, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as it focuses on conserving and improving the center’s historic appeal while also promoting business growth and economic vitality.

As a result, Main Street is lined with an appealing selection of shops and boutiques, with an emphasis on art, antiques and eclectic shopping. Among the highlights are Northland Exposure Artists’ Gallery, Old Town Sweets and Antiques, and Parkville Coffee. Wines by Jennifer, housed in an early 1900’s historic house on Main Street, is known for its themed wines rooms, representing major wine regions from around the world, and for its tasting room and lower-level art gallery.

There’s no shortage of community gathering spots in Parkville. In the heart of downtown, Pocket Park is a charming place where a number of townspeople have purchased commemorative bricks. On a much larger scale, the beautiful, 140-acre Platte Landing Park offers trails and boat access to the Missouri River.

Parkville Days, a three-day tradition in August, is a festival where families come together and celebrate Parkville’s past, present and future. The celebration features art and crafts, food, music and games. Other highlights on the year’s calendar are Cruise Nights, “Run by the River,” the annual Microwbrew Fest, Parkville’s July 4th Celebration, the local Farmers’ Market and Christmas on the River.

Really, there’s a whole lot for the residents of this little town to celebrate on their memorable Main Street.

Photo courtesy of Don Smith

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Primary min 15

Olympia, Washington – Columbia Street NW

Main Streets 2016: Washington

The Pacific Northwest is world-renowned for its spectacular outdoor settings. And the city of Olympia, Washington, on the southernmost tip of Puget Sound with sweeping views of the Olympic Mountains from the waterfront, embraces all the region’s assets, from its outdoor attractions to its deep commitment to music and the arts.

You can soak it all in along Columbia Street Northwest, which leads from the waterfront, with its marinas full of sailboats, to the heart of this capital city’s downtown. Exploring the street starts with its western end at Percival Landing Park, a 3.38-acre park named after the old commercial steamship wharf built here in 1860. A boardwalk extends along the eastern shoreline, where the lawn is a huge draw for families and couples who gather for picnics, and where the community comes for special events.

Percival Landing links Olympia’s maritime roots to its more recent commitment to public art. Olympia describes itself as one of the best small cities for the arts, and it promotes a walking tour of public art throughout town. The park is a major draw on that tour — it’s home to the Percival Plinth Project, which has installed stands, or plinths, for sculptures along the waterfront. Each year a new selection of sculptures is loaned by local and regional artists for display. The community votes on a favorite, which is purchased and put on permanent display elsewhere in Olympia.

There are shops, restaurants, and plenty more to see and do along Columbia Street and its nearby neighborhoods. The city’s Parks, Arts & Recreation Department is up the street at The Olympia Center, which also hosts private and community events. Olympia’s community and cultural life is enlivened by several local institutions of higher learning, including the Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College.

Within a few blocks of Columbia Street are more attractions — including the Washington Center for The Performing Arts, the Olympia Downtown Association and the Old Capitol Building, a beautiful structure that dates to Olympia’s earliest days as the state capital.

Street photo courtesy of Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Percival Landing photo courtesy of ThurstonTalk.com

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Colorado

Pueblo, Colorado – North Main Street

Main Streets 2016: Colorado

By the turn of the 20th century, Pueblo, Colorado had become known as Steel City and the “Pittsburgh of the Plains,” with steel mills and smelting facilities. Boom years had come with the demand for steel and the westward march of the railroads, and for several years Pueblo was Colorado’s largest city — but in 1921, the Arkansas River flooded and the entire business district was wiped out.

Yet Pueblo rebuilt, and today its Main Street is central to a vibrant downtown. Starting at the Convention Center, you can walk to most of Pueblo’s major attractions. On North Main, the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra has been making high-quality music for 86 straight years, and the Damon Runyon Theater Company stages live drama, dance and music at the Runyon Theater, in addition to offering youth programs and other educational activities.

A short walk west of Main Street is the El Pueblo History Museum, which showcases local history and has re-created the original El Pueblo adobe trading post from 1842, based on the museum’s archeological probe of the trading post’s original site. And just off Main on South Grand Avenue is Memorial Hall, a beautiful building that was dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson in his last public address in 1919 to all those lost in the “War to End All Wars,” or World War I. Home to theatre, music and dance performances, Memorial Hall has been the vibrant centerpiece of this region’s cultural community for nearly a century.

Further south is the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, a 32-acre urban waterfront along the original, restored pathway of the Arkansas River in Pueblo’s old downtown, the Union Avenue Historic Commercial District. The Riverwalk has been vital in attracting new businesses that have helped stabilize the economic base of the city. Along the Riverwalk is the Center for American Values, a non-profit that highlights “extraordinary heroic acts by people from all walks of life,” with educational outreach programs and a portrait collection of 140 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.

Nearby, the Arkansas River levee is the canvas for the Pueblo Levee Mural Project‚ a 3-mile-long piece of artwork that Guinness World Records designated as the world’s largest outdoor mural. These days, Pueblo is even better-known for its annual Chile and Frijoles Festival on Main Street, which draws over 100,000 people here each September to make the most of the area’s signature crops of chiles and pinto beans. The “Creative Corridor” is a project of the Pueblo Arts Alliance, and celebrates the city’s art heritage with restaurants, shops and galleries.

North Main Street photo courtesy of The Armchair Explorer

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Richmond, California – Macdonald Avenue

Main Streets 2016: California

From hosting the largest shipbuilders on the West Coast during World War II to its current campaign to become a pedestrian-friendly “urban village,” Macdonald Avenue  has lived through some powerful changes.

Today, the Richmond Main Street Initiative is a certified program of Main Street America that’s taking an interlinked, multi-front approach to redeveloping downtown as a safe and thriving destination for businesses, entertainment and the arts. Running from the Richmond Parkway to I-80, Macdonald Avenue is the primary east-west connector in the heart of downtown Richmond, in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay area.

This is part of the area known as The Iron Triangle, so-called because it was bounded by railroad tracks, which have since been covered over with asphalt. In recent years, the area became known as a high-crime district — but the work to build a new, positive direction was uplifted by the opening in 2011 of the new East Bay Center for the Performing Arts at Macdonald and 11th Street. The East Bay Center has been in operation since 1968, and has given over 50,000 student artists a chance to develop themselves and their work. The Center’s new facility includes the aptly named Iron Triangle Theater.

The Richmond Chamber of Commerce provides services, resources and advocacy. The Downtown Holiday Festival, Small Business Saturday and the annual Community Fund Golf Tournament are just a few of its activities. The Main Street Initiative is working to attract more people to downtown Richmond, in part by organizing events such as Music on the Main, Art in Windows, and the Spirit and Soul Festival. The Summer Youth Entrepreneurs Program helps youngsters develop business-related skills. Several farmers’ markets, both on and around MacDonald Avenue, are a strong feature of Richmond, with local produce, fruit, eggs and handmade crafts.

For outdoor activities, the Nevin Center hosts sailing, biking, camping and kayaking. Just to the west of Macdonald Avenue is Point Richmond, where Europeans settled in the mid-1800s. Nearby is the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front, a 145-acre National Historical Park that overlooks the site of the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards, which produced more ships during the war than any other.

Speaking of history, the Richmond Museum on Nevin Street, one block north of Macdonald Avenue, showcases the history of this diverse city. The museum also maintains the SS Red Oak Victory, the “Ship that Rosie Built,” a restored, locally built cargo ship that serves as a monument to the men and women who worked in wartime industries during World War II.

Photo courtesy of Richmond Main Street Initiative

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