Holiday Merriment on Main Street

They’re so different one from the other, these lovely little Main Street communities scattered across the map of this gumbo state of Louisiana. Even their Christmas celebrations are different, saluting the unique heritage and history of each place—from the Germanic nutcrackers celebrating Fasching season in Minden to a moss-hung Yuletide on the Bayou celebration in New Iberia, from the French flair of Les Lumieres du Village l’Abbeville to St. Francisville’s English-style Christmas in the Country. Every Main Street has its much-anticipated holiday parade and festival centered on its historic commercial corridor, welcoming the season with special activities and events tailored to celebrate their own heritage, making Christmas the ideal time to visit the Main Streets of Louisiana whether the season is heralded with the arrival of Pere Noel, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle or good ol’ all-American Santa.

The earliest of these Main Street communities developed along the major waterways, the Mississippi and the big bayous that were the initial highways for transporting crops and goods and pioneers. Others had to await the coming of the railroad, the tracks reaching inland to connect landlocked prairies to the outside world.

In the southerly coastal communities you can smell the salty sea breeze blowing off the Gulf and rippling the rows of sugarcane, with ancient live oaks hung with Spanish moss and the seafood so fresh it’s practically dripping. The westernmost ones have more Texas influence, while the North Louisiana communities are little islands of commerce and culture set amid the red-dirt hills and piney woods and fertile fields of cotton and corn and soybeans—miles and miles and miles of cotton and corn and soybeans.

The ones that are parish seats of government surround iconic courthouses and town squares, and the ethnic heritages are French, Spanish, Creole, Acadian, English, Italian, African, Caribbean, German and all the other cultural influences that make up this gumbo state of Louisiana. Three of these communities are so small they are not even considered cities, but are cited as towns in the 2010 Census. Populations range from tiny Columbia with only 390 hardy souls to the largest, Houma (33,727), closely followed by New Iberia and Slidell. Many of the Main Street districts are also National Register Historic Districts and Cultural Districts.

And yet, as different as they seem, from the cypress swamps to the pine forests and wide open prairies, they all have one thing in common—a burning desire to hold on to their unique sense of place and to preserve the early commercial corridors that were once the heart and soul of the communities and sometimes still are. What unites them, in this age of sterile suburban strip malls and characterless cookie-cutter big-box shopping centers, is the struggle to hang on to what makes them different, unique, so very special.

Most of the managers who oversee these Main Street communities wear many hats in their municipal administrations. Some are veterans who have been with the Main Street program for years; others are more recent hires, but they all have a passion to preserve significant historic downtowns. Supported by advisory boards and community volunteers, these managers work closely with their local governing bodies and with both private and public preservation and planning groups. Many (but by no means all) are fortunate to have enthusiastically supportive municipal administrations, and it certainly helps when there is a local understanding of how preservation and progress must go forward hand in hand, without trampling on each other.

In 1980, realizing that across the country significant historic commercial districts were at risk of being lost, the National Trust for Historic Preservation established the National Main Street Center, with six states participating initially. Within the program’s first twenty-five years, more than forty-three states and 2,200 communities would become involved. The purpose of the program was to revitalize deteriorating and neglected downtowns by focusing on economic development to create sustainable historic commercial districts and to introduce new life and opportunities by utilizing existing assets.

Realizing that these historic commercial corridors were often the hearts and souls of surrounding communities, officials with the national Main Street program determined to provide the incentive and support for revitalizing and taking pride in these unique spaces that gave each community its individual sense of place. Statistics showed that, on a national basis, every dollar invested in historic downtowns was multiplied many times over in new private investment, with vibrant downtowns attracting more residents, visitors and businesses.

Louisiana joined the national network in 1984 with four communities: Franklin, Hammond, Houma and Donaldsonville, which were quickly joined in the next few years by Minden and Winnsboro. Louisiana Main Street is part of the state Division of Historic Preservation, Office of Cultural Development, in the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. Director Ray Scriber and design coordinator Leon Steele manage to provide support and direction for all of the scattered state participants. Today there are twenty-nine Louisiana Main Street communities and four Main Street urban districts in New Orleans—thirty-three programs that are as different as they are alike in their attempts to improve their areas’ economic bases, strengthen public participation, recruit new businesses and rehabilitate historic buildings for productive use.

The Main Street designation is an honor, but communities must work for it and exhibit the long-term commitment toward sustained economic development through preservation. Property owners within program boundaries benefit from federal and state rehabilitation tax credits, often applied in conjunction with restoration tax abatements that can delay increased property value assessments when historic structures are improved (and hence worth more).

Annual competitive Redevelopment Incentive Grants assist qualified applicants with both interior and exterior restoration and rehab projects. These local grants are intended to serve as catalysts for rehabbing and often repurposing historic downtown commercial structures, and they require a matching investment by the property owner or applicant; each project is reviewed by the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation to ensure conformance with strict standards. State grants also support the coordinated Louisiana Main-to-Main Cultural Roadshow held in each Main Street community throughout the month of November with the idea of encouraging road trips from one community to another, focusing on local history and architecture, music, food and culture. The Louisiana Main Street coordinating program also provides design, organizational, promotional and economic development services to the designated districts.

In the twenty-five years since Louisiana joined the national program, nearly two thousand new businesses have been started, creating some eight thousand jobs, with private investment of $315 million and a total investment of more than $400 million in historic rehabilitation and new construction. Hammond alone has seen more than $56 million in total investments in its historic downtown, closely followed by Natchitoches with nearly $50 million. Two Louisiana communities have achieved national recognition as Great American Main Street communities, Natchitoches and New Iberia; in any given year, only five communities are chosen nationwide for this prestigious honor.

The Main Street approach is four-fold. Organization involves building partnerships and assembling resources to implement the revitalization program. Economic restructuring involves helping existing businesses stay in business, while recruiting new ones and diversifying the economic base. Promotion involves marketing the downtown area’s unique characteristics supported by public events designed to draw visitors to the area. Finally, Design involves enhancing the area’s physical appearance through preservation and rehabilitation of the architectural character while creating a user-friendly streetscape.

The National Trust Main Street Center’s experience in helping communities bring their historic commercial corridors back to life has shown over and over again that this Four-Point Approach really works, providing a foundation for communities to revitalize their historic commercial districts by leveraging local assets from cultural and architectural heritage to community pride. Why is this important? Because, according to the Trust, “our Main Streets tell us who we are and who we were, and how the past has shaped us. We do not go to bland suburbs or enclosed shopping malls to learn about our past, explore our culture, or discover our identity.”

Our Main Streets are our core, our heart and soul, and as every smart growth planning and redevelopment study tells us, the larger community is only as healthy as its core. Our Main Streets give us our sense of place and our sense of community. Our Main Streets are what make each community unique and different; they are the repository of our collective memories. Louisiana’s wonderful Main Street communities are all that, and more, because, after all, this is Louisiana, with its rich gumbo history blending diverse ingredients into a unique and harmonious whole. We have much in common with all the little historic commercial corridors fighting for life across the country, but, as the Louisiana Main Street slogan says, here it’s “just like Mayberry, only the diner sells gumbo and Aunt Bea does a wicked two-step.” Vive la difference!

Published by UL Press, the book Main Streets of Louisiana by Anne Butler, with photographs by Henry Cancienne, will be released in March 2012.

Details. Details. Details.

Communities participating in the Louisiana Main Street program are: Abbeville, Bastrop, Clinton, Columbia, Crowley, Denham Springs, DeRidder, Donaldsonville, Eunice, Franklin, Hammond, Houma, Leesville, Minden, Morgan City, Natchitoches, New Iberia, New Roads, Opelousas, Plaquemine, Ponchatoula, Ruston, St. Francisville, St. Martinville, Slidell, Springhill, and four New Orleans Urban Districts: Broad Street, North Rampart Street, O.C. Haley Boulevard and St. Claude Avenue. Learn more about all of them at crt.state.la.us/maintomain.