Emporia Main Street Means Better Business for Kansas Town

This year, Emporia, Kansas -- the home of about 30,000 people, as well as the Town Crier Bookstore -- was the recipient of a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust Main Street Center. The award is the result of more than a decade of work by Emporia Main Street -- a downtown community organization that is part of the 25-year-old National Trust Main Street Center, a national organization designed to bring economic revitalization to communities of all sizes -- with an emphasis on restoration and preservation of historic shopping and business districts.

The Great American Main Street Awards, which were presented in May during the National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore, are given annually to five communities for notable achievements in revitalization efforts. Other winners this year were Barracks Row, Washington, D.C.; Frederick, Maryland; New Iberia, Louisiana; and Washington Gateway in Boston, Massachusetts.

In many organized downtown preservation and revitalization efforts, independent retailers such as bookstores are active and essential players. Emporia was no exception.

The provenance of Town Crier and Emporia Main Street dovetailed in the early 1990s. During the 1980s, the town had lost many businesses and jobs. Looking for ways to improve the downtown area, pharmacist and property owner Glen Hadaway determined that a bookstore would be a vital component, so he opened Town Crier Bookstore, explained longtime bookstore manager Becky Smith.

"At the beginning Hadaway had a partner, and they found reliable staff," Smith told BTW. "He's the owner, but leaves the operation and management to the staff. We will be 15 [years old] in May 2006." Smith, who is a fifth-generation Emporian, began as part-time Christmas help 11 years ago and has worked at the 1,500-square-foot store ever since.

Hadaway spearheaded the effort to form a downtown association that became Emporia Main Street. Smith said that the nature of the community is conducive to such an organization. "We're very diversified -- music, embroidery, restaurants, banks, and an historic theater [The Granada, mid-restoration] with a sweet shop and cafe in it. All our buildings are the same size so all the stores are the same size. Chains don't want such small spaces. Most of our city commissioners are local business owners and want to keep the downtown healthy."

In presenting the award on May 9 in Baltimore, Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, described some of the accomplishments of Emporia Main Street. His remarks are quoted in a news release from the National Trust:

"Emporia Main Street has made business retention a priority and closed vacant spaces by recruiting businesses to fill up more than 180,000 square feet of retail space. Over the life of the Emporia Main Street program, every dollar of taxpayer money allocated downtown has resulted in $33 in private investment. The Main Street program fosters entrepreneurship with businesses through several initiatives, including ongoing business education programs, a zero-percent loans provision, and tax rebates for business owners who improve their buildings.

"Downtown Emporia has made great strides, not only by reclaiming its buildings and recruiting new businesses, but also by promoting downtown as a center for celebrating community." --Nomi Schwartz