Clarkesville Main Street has been designated as an accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center.
Each year, the National Main Street Center and its Coordinating Program partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach®.
“It is a great honor to recognize this year’s 828 nationally Accredited Main Street America programs for their outstanding work to transform downtown and neighborhood commercial districts,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “Main Streets are the heart of our communities, and the work they do to create quality public spaces, catalyze local entrepreneurship, and support downtown housing is more important than ever. Across the county, Main Street America programs truly strengthen the economic, social, and cultural fabric of their entire communities.”
” …(we) consider it a great honor and reward for all our downtown supporters, businesses, property owners, and volunteers…” ~ Clarkesville Main Street Manager Mary Beth Horton.
The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Georgia Main Street Program which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten performance standards. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.
Clarkesville’s Main Street Program is guided by volunteer members of the Board of Directors and Main Street Manager, Mary Beth Horton. Designated in 2010, The Clarkesville Main Street program was recently honored by the Georgia Downtown Association when it received the “2016 Award for Excellence in Organization.”
“This is the eighth consecutive year that we have met the requirements to be certified as a National Main Street City,” Horton says. “We are very excited to receive this accreditation, and consider it a great honor and reward for all our downtown supporters, businesses, property owners, and volunteers, as well as the entire Clarkesville community, who have worked so hard to get us where we are today.”
Clarkesville Main Street said its accomplishments this year include receiving a Vibrant Communities Grant for a downtown mural, the installation of StreetSounds- an outdoor speaker system, completion of the Soque River Viewing Platform, and the hosting of numerous events that have brought thousands of people to downtown Clarkesville.
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,000 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $71.35 billion in new public and private investment, generated 583,869 net new jobs and 131,974 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 267,800 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
