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Raising the Flag for Main Street, USA
This article by Tricia Fagan was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on
February 17, 1999. All rights reserved.
For most of us growing up in New Jersey before the
1970s a highlight of the week was the inevitable weekend shopping
trip along the Main Street of the nearest city or town. For our family
it was Rahway’s Cherry Street that beckoned with its wonderful quirky
mix of family-owned hardware stores, stationery shops, department
stores, butchers, bakers, milliners, and the requisite ice cream shop.
Variety wasn’t the only attraction: there was a neighborliness and
sense of community that added to the experience. The Stride Rite shoe
salesman always remembered the vagaries of our growing feet. The woman
at the massive two-level sewing notions store enjoyed introducing
my sisters and me to the latest exotic fabric selections.
As increasing numbers of businesses and residents moved away, however,
main streets throughout the country came more and more to resemble
ghost towns rather than thriving town centers. The gradual erosion
of these downtown commercial districts was viewed by many communities
as an unfortunate but inevitable reality.
Even small village centers like Lawrenceville began to feel the pinch
as competition from super-stores and highway shopping malls drew
shoppers
from the village stores. For many area residents the closing of
Bentley’s
Market, a long-time grocery, in the 1980s symbolized the slow decline
of their main street. Subsequent losses, including the hardware shop
and the Jigger Shop, the popular general store that was destroyed
in a fire, followed. Boarded-up buildings began to dot the tiny
historic
village as businesses moved out and fewer residents patronized the
remaining businesses.
Some Lawrenceville residents, however, refused to accept the decline
of their beloved historic village. Resolved to fight back, they began
talking about and researching the problem late in 1995. The volunteer
Village of Lawrenceville Main Street Project (MSP), initially
incorporated
in 1996 as the Lawrence Heritage Association, quickly grew through
one-to-one outreach, public speaking, and word of mouth. A part-time
consultant was soon brought in to help coordinate MSP efforts, and
in 1997 a full time coordinator was hired, but the program continues
to be volunteer-driven — and what a powerhouse group it has turned
out to be!
In three short years, the efforts of this dedicated citizen
organization
have yielded results that even the most successful professional
planner
would want to brag about. A master site plan for the village has been
completed. An historic building inventory and pictorial directory
of the village has been compiled, as well as a user friendly village
business directory. MSP also helped to secure a 25 mile per hour speed
limit in the Lawrenceville School zone along Route 206, and
MSP’s design committee secured a new sign ordinance for the village.
Citizen committees maintain attractive planters along Main Street,
and decorate the village for various holidays.
Since January, 1996, nine new businesses have been located in the
village. These include Classy Clippers pet supplies and groomers,
Maidenhead Bagel, Village Traditions gift shop, Vidalia Restaurant,
Marrazzo’s Gourmet Marketplace (formerly Centre Fruit Gourmet),
Essence
Dental Studio, and Main Street Frame Shop. The two most recent
additions,
Fedora Cafe and Edward Jones Investments, are in a new building
constructed
and owned by V.J. Scozzari and Sons. The building, at 2633 Main
Street,
is on the site of the old Bentley’s Market.
Fedora Cafe, owned and operated by Bryan Brodowski, who is also chef
and owner of Acacia, opened in January. Edward D. Jones Inc. joined
Fedora at 2633 Main Street earlier this month.
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Ann Garwig
Ann Garwig, full time project manager of Lawrenceville’s
MSP, tries to explain the history and motivation for this dramatic
success story. Sitting in MSP’s attractive offices on Phillips Avenue
just off of Route 206, she talks about the tremendous work the project
has accomplished to date. Garwig, a Mount Holyoke alumna, received
an MBA in 1989 from Rider. She came to the project as a part-time
consultant in 1997, bringing with her extensive experience in fund
development and a deep affection for the village’s downtown area.
Garwig first came to Lawrenceville as a child in the 1960s to visit
her brother who was a student at Lawrenceville School, and moved here
almost 17 years ago. "I just love this town. It reminds me so
much of the town in upstate New York where I grew up. It had that
same intimate, friendly feeling. That feeling was still there for
the most part when I moved back here almost 17 years ago, although
that had really changed in recent years."
Garwig emphasizes that from the beginning, this was a community-based,
citizen-driven process. "There were a lot of wonderful people
involved in getting this project going at the very beginning. Will
and Jane Dickey were certainly two of the major founders of the Main
Street Lawrenceville program. Will is on the faculty and Jane is on
the administrative staff of Lawrenceville School. Will was the
founding
father, really, of this initiative, and still remains active on our
board."
Garwig notes that the number of academics involved at the very
beginning
of project, many from the Lawrenceville School, offered a great
advantage
to the start up of MSP. "From the start, they thoroughly
researched
what could be done, and learned about the Main Street New Jersey
Program,
learned about the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the
National Main Street model. They gathered all these various types
of information and went out to meet with people in Merchantville,
already a designated Main Street New Jersey community to see what
they were doing. They really thoroughly, thoroughly studied the
situation
in Lawrenceville and the possible solutions. And they decided to
operate,
from the beginning, using the four points of the Main Street Approach:
organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring."
In July, 1997, Lawrenceville was officially designated a Main Street
New Jersey community. Main Street New Jersey, a program of the New
Jersey Department of Community Affairs, has been operating in the
state since 1990. Approximately once every two years (the next round
will take place later this year), the program selects communities
from around the state to participate in a comprehensive downtown
revitalization
program. There are currently 16 designated Main Street New Jersey
communities located throughout the state, including Trenton’s South
Broad Street, the only urban Main Street initiative, and
Lawrenceville,
the other Mercer County municipality.
A municipality is eligible to apply if it meets three major criteria:
a year-round or seasonal population between 4,000 and 50,000,
commitment
to employ a full-time executive director with an adequate operating
budget for a minimum of three years, and historic architectural
resources
in a traditional downtown commercial area. Since the Main Street
approach
emphasizes the need for a broad base of local people and groups
working
together to improve a downtown, they also stress that funding for
local Main Street programs should come from both public and private
sector sources.
Garwig notes with some humor that probably the major concern raised
about the eligibility of Lawrenceville during the selection process
was the size of the community and the downtown (MSP encompasses the
three block section of Route 206 running from Craven Lane to Gordon
Avenue, and going back one block from Main Street to George and James
Streets.) With a village business district of only three blocks,
Lawrenceville’s
historic downtown main street is the smallest of the Main Street New
Jersey communities, and one of the smallest nationally.
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Jef Buehler
Jef Buehler, assistant state coordinator of Main Street New Jersey,
agrees that the village’s well-defined, geographically tight downtown
is unique, but adds that the member base of Lawrenceville’s MSP may
be an even more important factor in the Project’s success. "This
is truly a volunteer-driven initiative. Unlike other Main Street
programs
that may have been started up by local businesses and property owners,
80 percent of the volunteers participating in Lawrenceville’s Main
Street program are residents."
He notes that the program’s assessment last summer concluded that
"they have a very effective organization, a talented volunteer
base that truly understands and is truly committed to the goals of
the Main Street program. They’re also really dedicated to working
with the Main Street Program’s comprehensive, four point
approach."
The Main Street New Jersey Program is one of 41 state-based projects
which operate using the Main Street Approach first developed in 1977
by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The approach is a
grass-roots, comprehensive management philosophy designed to stimulate
the downtown’s economy and capitalize on a town’s unique image. It
is not a grant program, nor does it offer any big fixes. The approach,
which requires effective public and private partnerships and the use
of an involved, strong volunteer base, is designed to stimulate
incremental
growth and changes.
Buehler explains, "This process is designed for the long haul.
In most cases it took years for our downtowns to decline. We don’t
expect it will take equally long to revitalize a community’s main
street, but we know that it takes time to design and implement a
successful
downtown plan that will be self-sustaining."
Along with on-going support and assessment services from Main Street
New Jersey, participating communities can receive professional
assistance,
free of charge, in a variety of areas ranging from screening and
hiring
an executive director, to small business development and architectural
design.
New services are continually being made available through Main Street
New Jersey. Last fall, three businesses in the Lawrenceville Main
Street district (Lawrenceville Fuel Company, Marrazzo’s Gourmet
Marketplace, and Village Traditions) were selected to receive one
year of free small business development consultation from John
Ingersoll
of Retail Merchandising Service Automation, an international
consulting
service.
Buehler says that Main Street New Jersey just contracted with two
additional professionals to offer expanded opportunities to the local
Main Street programs. Margaret Westfield, an architect with expertise
in historic preservation, will offer expanded design services. These
could include free facade renderings, education of and consultation
with local Main Street design committees, and consultation with local
businesses and property owners to educate them about the historic
design potential in their own buildings. Marketing and public relation
services — including marketing and image analysis, implementation
of a marketing plan, and long-term PR planning — will be offered
by Janice Wilson Stridick, a marketing consultant.
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Lawrenceville School
Today, Lawrenceville’s MSP is thriving, and the results
are evident as you drive or walk through the three-block main street
district. The project is funded through contributions from a variety
of sources including Lawrence Township, residents, property owners,
and institutions including Lawrenceville School. In 1996 the group
had initiated a fund-raising drive that asked contributors to pledge
support for at least three years. By May, 1997, the project had
exceeded
its initial three-year goal of $100,000, with approximately one third
of the funding coming from Lawrence Township.
Although local residents make up the largest percentage of those
involved
in and volunteering for MSP, village business owners, local
institutions,
property owners, and Lawrence Township representatives are all
represented
in the initiative. Lawrenceville School, whose campus faces the
village
main street from across Route 206, is a major player. Garwig points
out that many of MSP’s original founders as well as many of the
current
active volunteers are on the faculty and administrative staff of the
School. She adds that the School’s involvement in the process is a
natural for other reasons as well. "For one thing, beyond their
own campus, Lawrenceville School is a major property owner in the
village’s downtown. For example, they own the building which houses
the MSP program, which they offer rent free. They have also made major
financial contributions, and have been consistently supportive of
the Project’s efforts and initiatives."
Although Garwig has a full plate coordinating the many MSP activities,
publishing the quarterly Main Street Press newsletter, managing the
office, and representing the organization, MSP is completely dependent
on its volunteers to sustain its many projects and to continue to
achieve its significant accomplishments. These volunteers work on
MSP committees that include economic restructuring, traffic & parking,
design, landscape, promotion, fundraising, volunteer, and the MSP
board of directors.
Perhaps some of MSP’s most visible projects have been developed and
carried off by the very creative promotion committee. In one year
they developed several innovative marketing initiatives including
"Main Street Dollars" which can be spent at any Village place
of business, the development of coupon books tailored to suit
different
promotions and events, and specialty retail promotions during various
holidays.
Three annual Village Picnics have drawn hundreds of families and
individuals
in to join in some hometown fun. Several "Newcomers’ Desserts"
have been offered to introduce new residents to the community. A new
celebration, the "Lawrenceville Jubilee," is scheduled as
a day-long special event to take place in the village on Saturday,
May 8. Tommie Culligan, MSP member and owner of Village Traditions,
is spear-heading plans for the Jubilee. Community awareness about
MSP initiatives is sustained through a frequently updated community
bulletin board, a bi-weekly column in the Lawrence Ledger, and
quarterly
issues of MSP’s informative "Main Street Press" newsletter.
At the end of his interview Buehler said, "Be sure to ask about
MSP’s `Pony Express.’ I won’t tell you what it is, but I will say
that it’s truly unique and in many ways really characterizes the
spirit
and imagination that make this program so successful."
Asked to describe the "Pony Express" initiative, Garwig burst
into laughter. "The state and national folk really love our Pony
Express," she says. "Pony Express is a group of MSP volunteers
who are very frugal. They did not want to waste money mailing
newsletters
and flyers to people who lived right in the area. They said, `Look,
I’ll walk up and down. I’ll deliver some. We now have a map of the
township, with highlighted areas indicating where volunteers hand
deliver materials. So when it’s time to for our newsletter to go out,
volunteers come by and we hand deliver a couple thousand copies
directly."
Buehler, asked if the Main Street Programs might tend to homogenize
downtowns into nostalgic strips of Americana that might all be pretty
much similar, stressed that with successful Main Street Programs the
exact opposite occurs. "Each town has to determine what it is
that they are, and what they want to be. You have to play to your
strengths, and form a vision of where you’re going that matches those
strengths.
Garwig is excited about the Master Site Plan for the village with
its design and traffic improvements, and excited about the upcoming
Capital Campaign that MSP will soon be kicking off. "One thing
that motivates all the volunteers in this process," she observes,
"is their love of Lawrenceville. What we’ve done is to
reclaim
our community. It’s our community again. People know each other’s
names. People love walking around the village again, bumping into
friends."
She adds, "We talk about Lawrenceville now as being our
children’s
home town. We want our children to have the same feeling about
Lawrenceville
as we had about our childhood home towns." With its thriving
downtown,
its sense of neighborliness, and its active cadre of residents,
businesses,
and institutions working together on common goals — like a real
community — it seems that Lawrenceville’s Main Street Project
can’t miss.
— Tricia Fagan
Lawrenceville
08648. Ann Garwig, executive director. 609-219-9300; fax,
609-219-9301.
E-mail villagemsp@aol.com
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— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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