National Recognition

By BETH FOLEY
The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE November 19, 2008 09:10 am

— Local efforts to revive downtown Palestine have resulted in national recognition.
A year after being named a Texas Main Street City, the City of Palestine has been named a National Main Street City by the Texas Historical Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Palestine Mayor Carolyn Salter said Tuesday morning that she was happy to see the efforts of local citizens and businesses pay off with national recognition.
“This is a high honor for the City of Palestine and our Main Street program,” Salter said. “It reflects hundreds of hours of work by Neely Plumb, Jean Mollard, members of the Main Street Advisory board and many, many volunteers, businesses and collaborating organizations. I send my congratulations to all those who have worked hard on this project to renew our downtown.”
The credit should be spread around to everyone who helped in some way, Mollard said.
“It’s everyone working together, starting with the city for endorsing Main Street in the first place and putting into place ... all of the skeleton and platform for building a historic community,” Mollard said. “It starts with the building codes — changing those to the International Building Code which works better for historic buildings, setting up historic districts and all of the apparatus for encouraging people to do the buildings in the proper manner.”
The renovations downtown had drawn notice before the national recognition was announced, Plumb said.
“We have people that have come here from larger metropolitan areas, some even from out of state, that have said what a tremendous place this is and what a wealth of historic resources we have,” Plumb said.
Being known as a National Main Street City should enhance the city’s ability to attract attention from people around the country who are interested in historic preservation, Mollard said.
“I think it will bring outside interest in us,” Mollard said. “I think other people will look at us as a community as either the lead dog or they will want to join our team and buy some of these properties and jump on the bandwagon.”
Palestine is one of 53 Texas cities so designated for 2009. The others include Amarillo, Bastrop, Beaumont, Beeville, Bowie, Brenham, Bridgeport, Canton, Canyon, Carthage, Celina, Clifton, Colorado City, Comanche, Corsicana, Cotulla, Denison, Denton, Electra, Elgin, Farmersville, Gainesville, Georgetown, Goliad, Gonzales, Grapevine, Greenville, Harlingen, Henderson, Kerrville, Kilgore, La Grange, Levelland, Livingston, Llano, Lufkin, Luling, McKinney, Mount Vernon, Nacogdoches, New Braunfels, Odessa, Paris, Pharr, Plainview, San Angelo, San Marcos, Seguin, Sonora, Taylor, Tyler and Waxahachie.
Debra Farst, state coordinator for the Texas Main Street Program, praised the year-long efforts put forth by those involved in each city.
“A lot of hard work goes into achieving this recognition,” Farst said. “Main Street communities exemplify the Texas mystique and this recognition honors the many people, including Main Street managers and volunteers, who put in countless hours to make their Main Street programs work. The result is an active and successful downtown revitalization effort that benefits not only the Main Street district, but also the entire community.”
The cities were honored at the recent Texas Downtown Association/Texas Main Street Conference in Temple. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center will honor these cities at the 2009 National Main Streets Conference to be held in Chicago in March.
Cities chosen as National Main Street Cities must show above average performance in 10 categories. The selection criteria focus on planning, staff and volunteers, preservation ethic, training and program assessment.
The THC’s Texas Main Street Program is a revitalization program for historic downtown and neighborhood commercial districts, based on a four-point approach — organization, design, promotion and economic restructuring, all within the context of historic preservation. Implemented in 1981, the program has assisted more than 140 communities throughout the state.
For additional information, visit the National Main Street Web site at www.mainstreet.org and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Web site at www.nationaltrust.org.
For more information on the Texas Historical Commission’s Main Street program visit www.thc.state.tx.us or contact Farst at 512-463-5758.

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