About Us

A Brief History

What began in 1977 as an experiment with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save three Midwestern downtown cities has grown to become a national movement of which Mississippi Main Street is very proud to be a part. Since 1980, thousands of communities throughout the nation have joined the Main Street program and applied the Main Street Approach™ with successful, lasting changes. Designated Mississippi Main Street Communities are an excellent example of how the innovative framework of the Main Street Approach helps communities preserve their unique heritage while building a vibrant commercial district.

History of the Main Street Program

In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of downtowns fell by the wayside. As suburban strip developments and shopping malls began to proliferate and communities were securing mass construction in areas such as housing and highways, Main Street was undergoing mass destruction. Businesses in traditional downtown commercial areas began to decline. Empty stores, boarded up buildings and deteriorating structures lined the streets that were once the social and commercial center of American Life. 

With the loss of revenue, many downtown merchants either moved to the suburbs or went out of business, leaving numerous vacant buildings, most of them important parts of the communities' history and/or significant examples of historic architecture listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Of course, the vacancies led to deterioration, a blight on the community, and often the loss of significant historic structures.  

By the late 1970s, community after community began to realize that modernization and progress left them with an empty space that downtown used to fill. Main Street as they knew it was gone and so was their sense of community. The desire to rekindle the lost community spirit was echoed across the country.

To combat this situation, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and other agencies promoted the idea of making the historic downtowns more like the suburban malls and funded massive programs to pedestrianize and cover the downtown commercial streets. Because this scheme changed how the historic downtowns had always functioned, in most cases it turned out to be a miserable and expensive failure.  

People could no longer drive to or park near the shops they wanted to patronize, and the large metal covers or canopies that were installed over the original streets altered the historic appearance of downtown, often becoming a haven for pigeons, which left an awful mess. The malling (or "mauling" as many called it) of downtowns actually exacerbated the problem in most cases, rather than helping the situation.  
 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP), a private non-profit organization established to promote the preservation of the historic built environment, wisely recognized that downtown commercial areas were usually not only the oldest portions of a community, but often the raison d’etre for the community’s original existence.  Further, they realized that the deterioration of a community’s historic, character-rich heart also often resulted in the erosion of much community spirt as well. 

A town that maintains its historic core is a town that has pride in itself, and that pride is usually a magnet for businesses looking for a place to invest and for customers looking for a uniquely pleasant place to shop, dine, or reside. Consequently, the NTHP developed a very common-sense, low-cost, self-help, four-step approach to downtown revitalization:  

• Economic Vitality: Build a diverse economic base, catalyze smart new investment, and cultivate strong new entrepreneurship.
• Design: Preserve and celebrate the historic character, create an inviting atmosphere, foster accessible people-centered public spaces.
• Promotion: Market the district's unique historic character and ambience; communicate its distinct defining features; coordinate the sales, marketing, and event activities of downtown merchants; and support a buy-local experience. 
• Organization: Build leadership and strong organizational capacity through broad community engagement and partnerships across sectors.

Nationwide, efforts to take back Main Street were put in motion, but there was a desperate need for expertise and support. The need was soon filled by the NTHP. In 1980, after three years of pilot studies, the NTHP established the National Main Street Center to provide the support and encourage the revitalization of Main Street based on historic preservation and sound business practices. To date, 46 states and more than 1,600 communities participate in the Main Street Program nationwide.

History of the Mississippi Main Street Association

In the late-1970s, the National Trust for Historic Preservation tested the Main Street Approach in a few pilot cities, and the successes were so dramatic that they produced a 30-minute film documenting how the "Main Street" program concept was implemented and had transformed those communities.  Staff from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), the Mississippi Research and Development Center (R&D Center), and the Center for Small Town Research and Design (now the Carl Small Town Center) at MSU’s School of Architecture took this film around the state, screening it for chambers of commerce and downtown merchant associations in an effort to generate interest for implementing the program in our state.

In 1980, the NTHP established the National Main Street Center to promote and assist in disseminating the program to towns across the country.  Recognizing the effectiveness and potential of the Main Street concept, HUD funded a program to establish statewide Main Street Programs in five pilot states and issued a nationwide completion for selection of the five states.  Mississippi enthusiastically entered the competition and made it to the 10 finalists.  The fact that Mississippi was not selected as one of the five "winners" of the competition was a great disappointment but did not stop our determination to establish a Main Street Program in Mississippi.  

Although Mississippi was not a recipient of one of the HUD grants to contract for the training and technical assistance provided to participant states and municipalities by the National Main Street Center, we  explored the possibility of contracting for the Center’s organizational services with state funding.  However, due to the economic downturn in the early 1980s, the legislature did not feel the state could afford to bear the expense of contracting for the organizational services of the NTHP's National Main Street Center.  In early 1983, however Gov. William Winter, who was also president of MDAH’s Board of Trustees, invited NTHP president Michael Ainslie to visit the state and convinced him to allow Mississippi to enter the program at a reduced cost.  

Since there was no state appropriation for the Main Street Program at that time, no single state agency had the ability to fund the program.  Therefore, the R&D Center, MDAH, and the Center for Small Town Research and Design jointly funded the program, which got up and running in 1984.  The state’s initial Main Street Program was managed from the Small Town Center in Starkville, with a significant percentage of the duties of the Center’s director, George Parsons, dedicated to the program.  Although this method of implementation always suffered from inadequate funding and the lack of full-time staffing, at least it allowed us to initiate the program in Mississippi.

In 1984, the State of Mississippi made the first attempt to start a Main Street program. This effort resulted in the designation of nine communities that were to receive technical assistance and guidance from the state program. An earlier budget crisis caused the collapse of this effort, leaving these nine communities with local programs and managers but no level assistance from a statewide program.

Leaders and managers from these nine communities began communicating with each other, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Mississippi Downtown Development Association, a nonprofit organization. This provided an opportunity for these towns to band together, trying to solve their problems through this statewide association. However, lack of funding and staff made this organization a loosely knit core of volunteers and only fulfilled limited networking needs. Dedicated members of MDDA continued to pursue possible sources of funding for the much-needed state Main Street program. In July 1989, MDDA was successful in contracting with the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development to develop and implement a statewide Main Street program.

Since MDDA was solely devoted to implementation of the Main Street Program, it was able to expand the program greatly throughout the state.  Perhaps the greatest boost to the program's promotion was the hiring of Beverly Ming as MDDA's executive director.  Her knowledge of the program, derived from years working with the South Carolina Main Street Program (which was one of the state programs funded by HUD in 1980), as well as her infectious enthusiasm for the program, was a key factor in attracting many Mississippi communities into the fold!  

In March and April 1990, five application workshops were held across the state. More than 120 people representing 80 communities attended these workshops. In June 1990, the MDDA Board of Directors selected six official cities as demonstration communities for this program. At the same time, they pledged to continue working with the previously designated cities that had managed to keep their programs operating.

MDDA was created to provide technical assistance to member towns, which focused on issues embraced by the Four Point Approach of Main Street - Organization, Promotion, Design and Economic Vitality – that are designed to match resources available in their communities. In 1997, the MDDA rebranded to be called the Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA) in keeping in line with the national Main Street movement. Steady growth has continued over the course of Mississippi Main Street's history. 

In response to the growth over the years, MMSA has expanded its resources and consulting services to meet the needs and demands of the many programs. Trainings, community services, partner collaboration, advocacy, and sustainable program growth are top priorities for member programs. Currently, MMSA has 48 Designated Main Street Communities as well as Network and Associate Members.

Because of a strong Board of Directors, committed public and private investors and and coordinated efforts with statewide partners, MMSA has been successful in reinvesting more than $6 Billion in public/private investment and assisting with the creation of more than 6,000 new businesses and 40,000 new jobs, and more than 4,000 buildings have been improved in the central business districts of towns and cities across the state. 

By utilizing MMSA’s expertise, resources and technical assistance, once badly deteriorating downtowns are becoming vibrant and viable, and are taking their rightful place as the heart, center and core of their communities. The Main Street program demonstrates that if a community maintains a good quality of life, economic development will follow!  The Main Street Program has been one of Mississippi's most effective and cost-efficient economic development activities over the past 40 years.

The Main Street Approach™ is a time-tested framework for community-driven, comprehensive revitalization.

Every community and commercial district is different, with its own distinctive assets and sense of place. The Main Street Approach™ offers community-based revitalization initiatives with a practical, adaptable framework for downtown transformation that is easily tailored to local conditions. The Main Street Approach™ helps communities get started with revitalization, and grows with them over time.

Main Street Fundamentals

• The Main Street Approach™ is centered around Transformation Strategies. A Transformation Strategy articulates a focused, deliberate path to revitalizing or strengthening a downtown or commercial district’s economy.
• A program’s work on Transformation Strategies should be organized around the Four Points: Economic Vitality, Design, Promotion, and Organization.
• A revitalization program’s work – and its Transformation Strategies – need to be informed by a solid understanding of local and regional market data, and sustained and inclusive community engagement.

Transformation Strategies

Transformation Strategies are generated through meaningful community engagement and informed by an analysis of the district’s market position — help to guide a revitalization program’s work. An effective Transformation Strategy serves a particular customer segment, responds to an underserved market demand, or creates a differentiated destination. 

Some "ready-to-use" strategies — called Catalyst Strategies — fall into two broad categories: those that are focused on a specific customer segment and those that are focused on an industry, product, or service segment.

Four Points

Transformation Strategies are implemented through comprehensive work in four broad areas, known collectively as the Four Points:

• Economic Vitality focuses on capital, incentives, and other economic and financial tools to assist new and existing businesses, catalyze property development, and create a supportive environment for entrepreneurs and innovators that drive local economies.
• Design supports a community’s transformation by enhancing the physical and visual assets that set the commercial district apart.
• Promotion positions the downtown or commercial district as the center of the community and hub of economic activity, while creating a positive image that showcases a community’s unique characteristics.
• Organization involves creating a strong foundation for a sustainable revitalization effort, including cultivating partnerships, community involvement, and resources for the district.

While the Main Street Approach™ provides the format for successful revitalization, implementing it is based on eight Guiding Principles that pertain to all areas of the revitalization effort.

While the Main Street Approach™ provides the format for successful revitalization, implementing it is based on eight guiding principles that pertain to all areas of the revitalization effort.

1. Comprehensive. Commercial revitalization is a complex process that cannot be accomplished through a single project.
    
2. Incremental. Small projects and simple activities lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the revitalization process and help to develop skills so that more complex problems can be addressed, and more ambitious projects undertaken.
    
3. Community-Driven. Local leaders must have the desire and will to make the project successful. The National Main Street Center, and Coordinating Programs, provide direction, ideas, and training; but continued and long-term success depends upon the involvement and commitment of the community.
    
4. Public-Private Partnership. Both the public and private sectors have a vital interest in the economic health and physical viability of the commercial district.
    
5. Identifying and Capitalizing on Existing Assets. Business districts must capitalize on the assets, such as architecture and business mix, that make them unique.
    
6. Quality. Quality must be emphasized in every aspect of the revitalization program across the Four Points.
    
7. Change. Changes in attitude and practice are necessary to improve current economic conditions. Public support for change will build as the program grows.
    
8. Implementation-Oriented. Activity creates confidence in the program and ever greater levels of participation. Work plans are required to drive meaningful work for downtown organizations.