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Marion, Iowa © Tasha Sams
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Long-time Main Streeter Frances Jo Hamilton encourages us to appreciate the growth and success of our work. © Frances Jo Hamilton
As Main Street leaders, our jobs require creativity, deep listening, and the ability to bring people together through a shared love of community and place. I’m interested in the many ways that this love of community manifests itself: how do we show up to take care of the places we love? How do we motivate and inspire others to do the same? Sometimes this work takes a lot of inventiveness. But sometimes, the answers are right in front of us, in the memories of the elders in our community.
I met Frances Jo Hamilton, the former Main Street Director of Delaware, Ohio, who now leads Ohio’s statewide Main Street program, in my first weeks on the job in Denver, Colorado. Frances Jo’s decades of work revitalizing downtown Delaware is deeply rooted in her connection with her grandmother, a downtown business owner and fixture in Delaware. Frances Jo told me this amazing story about getting a team of volunteers to power wash the downtown sidewalks with fire hoses — something her grandmother had told her used to happen decades before downtown experienced its downturn.
It struck me as an amazing example of something we Main Street leaders do a lot: we take care of the places we love. When we love someone or someplace, we sweat the small stuff. We’re very good at taking something seemingly ordinary, such as the cleaning of sidewalks, and using it as a practice to build trust, to build value, and to build community. I was particularly struck by how meaningful Frances Jo told me this power-washing tradition was to her volunteers. She had made lifelong friends this way! And this was no easy volunteer assignment — it required people being outside for nearly 24 hours, wielding heavy fire hoses in the middle of the night.
So I asked to sit down with Frances Jo to hear the whole story of how her grandmother inspired this unlikely tradition and how it became such a vital example of what can happen when we show up to care for the places we love.
Frances Jo Hamilton honors her grandmother’s contributions to Delaware’s Main Street. © Frances Jo Hamilton
I was born in Delaware. In 1999, I was living in Columbus but decided to relocate home and bought my second historic home here. The Delaware Main Street program was just taking off. Some neighbors came across the street and said, “We understand you have some really cool stories about your grandma and the downtown — would you be willing to do some walking tours to introduce this new ‘Main Street’ concept?”
At that time, I was taking speech courses at the community college to try to get over my deathly fear of public speaking, so I thought it was really serendipitous to be asked to talk in front of other humans. So I said sure, let’s call it trial by fire. We did these walking tours for a couple of years, twice a month. Each tour was a tight hour — thirty minutes of history intermingled with little cute stories about my grandma and then thirty minutes of an introduction to the Main Streets concept. We followed up with folks after each tour, and every six months, we would invite them all to a big breakfast and ask them for money. That was how we got our Main Street program off the ground.
I volunteered with Main Street for years. I chaired the design committee, then joined the board, and in 2006 they were looking for an executive director. I was doing lighting and electrical design for an architect. This was the beginning of the housing market crash, and work was getting slim, so I threw my hat into the ring. I was Executive Director of Main Street Delaware for almost ten years. When the Ohio Coordinator position came open, I took the leap from helping one community to sixty. I often say that I fell ass-backwards into it — I’m one of those really lucky people that got to turn my volunteerism into a paying gig.
When we started our Main Street program, the downtown was more than fifty percent vacant. Nobody was patronizing the downtown businesses and they were really suffering. Big box stores like Kmart and Big Wheel had popped up all around the outskirts. Downtown buildings were flushing toilets with buckets of water — it was kind of a nightmare.
So, we started First Fridays in 1999 before anyone knew what a First Friday was, and for a while, it was the same twelve people every month wandering around in our dark downtown. It was an uphill climb for sure, but now we’re almost a hundred percent occupied on the ground floor. And most of the buildings have undergone some sort of renovation — it’s just going like gangbusters. I think there are twenty-six eateries downtown — you can get everything from hot dogs to sushi in nine square blocks. It’s been really awesome to be on the front lines of that.
I always tell communities now, make sure you take that terrible photo when nobody shows up. You’re going to want a “before” photo when your efforts really start to take off. I have a Christmas tree lighting photo where there are maybe ten of us, and I put it next to a picture from fifteen years later where we had to close the street because everyone was pouring out into the road. So take the “before” photo — you’ll be grateful you did.
The first Christmas tree lighting in Delaware only had seven attendees. © Frances Jo Hamilton
10 years later, attendees at the event filled the downtown streets. © Frances Jo Hamilton
My grandma was a fixture in the downtown. She was a really progressive woman who knew everyone and did everything in Delaware. Grandma and Grandpa owned the last stag bar in downtown Delaware. My grandma bartended at a men’s only bar! She took really good care of all her customers, but at the same time, I watched and saw how hard it is to own a small business and how much that can take out of a family.
Grandma always felt it was important to support local businesses. I would come and spend a week or two with her in the summer as a kid, and for one meal a day we got to pick a place downtown to eat. She used to give me money when I was so small that I couldn’t even see over the pizza counter. It was really important to her for us to learn how to talk to store clerks, and to be able to interact with grownups downtown.
She and I were talking one day, and I was complaining about how grimy some of our sidewalks were getting. She said, “When I was a little girl, the fire department would come downtown and flush the fire hydrants once or twice a year. And while they were flushing the hydrants, they would hook up fire hoses and power wash all the sidewalks. I just don’t understand why they don’t do that anymore.”
When conversations like this happened, I would leave Grandma and immediately call the person who I needed to talk to about that problem. So I called the fire chief and told him I’d been talking to Grandma, and Grandma said that you all could use fire hoses to power wash the sidewalks! Amazingly, he agreed, and so for years that’s what we did.
It was an almost 24-hour process. We would start in the morning with the business owners sweeping all the debris to the curb. Downtown Delaware has what I affectionately call the “Suck Truck” — it would come along and pick up all the debris from the gutters. Then we would clean out all the flower planters, use Murphy’s Oil Soap on all the storefronts, and wipe down all the windows. One of our local bars would feed all the volunteers dinner. And starting at 10:00 p.m., we went out and started power washing sidewalks. We wielded fire hoses all night long. Chief Donahue and a couple of other firefighters were there to supervise; you can put out a window or flood a basement pretty easily with a fire hose.
We washed everybody’s patios, trash cans, and fencing, and if anybody wanted their patio furniture washed, we did that too. Then at 6:00 a.m., that same bar owner fed all of the volunteers breakfast. By that time, everyone would be pretty tired and cold — this usually happened in March. But we’d all have breakfast together, and then everyone would go home.
Washing the sidewalks in downtown Delaware. © Frances Jo Hamilton
Volunteers enjoying breakfast after a long night. © Frances Jo Hamilton
I can’t tell you the number of communities where I walk by trash cans that stink and are filthy; it’s clear no one has touched them in years. Ongoing maintenance is not built into our historic downtowns because it’s often considered private property. It’s kind of like a strip mall, and the City’s not going into a strip mall and scrubbing their trash cans. So there are all of these little gaps left. And when you start caring for these little things, it can instill a great deal of pride of place in the community with residents and business owners. They see that volunteers are willing to come in and spend that large amount of time and effort on the downtown. Those are the little things that add value to the business owners who wonder, “What’s Main Street doing for me?”
Then there’s the benefit to the volunteers themselves. My biggest takeaway was the camaraderie created when people spend that time together. Making grown-up friends is really hard, but we form friendships by doing things together with like-minded people. I found that everyone who participated wanted to do it again and again, and would feel like they’re missing out on a special opportunity if they didn’t. Some of my closest friendships have come from those experiences. And those are people who will absolutely never walk by another piece of trash on a downtown street without picking it up.
Local municipalities are used to people coming with their hands out, saying you’re the ones who should do this! Instead, we’re just stepping up and making it happen. It changes the dynamic so that they see us making sure the sidewalks and trash cans are cared for, not just complaining. It took a long time for the City to buy into Main Street Delaware, but now they give them a third of their budget. When you do that kind of cleaning in the downtown area for several years in a row, the city starts to rely on it, and they see the value. It is easier to ask for continued financial support when the city can count on the program for that return.
My short answer is that I create parking problems. I want every single community in Ohio to have a parking problem. Saying it that way immediately tells people where I stand. I don’t want to hear anyone complain about how there’s no parking. If you’re concerned with where to park, I can give you a list of communities where you can go and park anywhere you like any time, but of course there’s no reason for you to park there.
At the state level, when I help hire executive directors for Main Street organizations, I always tell them this is a personality job. We can teach the skills needed to do this job, but you must have the personality. My primary role as an executive director for a Main Streets program was the care and keeping of my volunteers. Giving them kudos on everything, making sure that they’re really well taken care of, that they get breaks, that they get fed. If you want a really well-run nonprofit organization, you can’t continue to abuse the usual suspects. Keep your meetings short, then let people go home. Set clear guidelines and notice when somebody’s weary, exhausted, or frustrated. That noticing goes a long way.
To this day, there are people I will text out of the blue and say, “Hey, do you remember that night we spent scrubbing sidewalks?” Or, “Do you remember that cold day we took down all of those Christmas decorations? I was just thinking about that, and I really appreciate it.” Sometimes, I think people appreciate those thank yous even more ten years later.
Frances Jo with her grandmother (Ellen Gruber), daughter (Frances Marie Hamilton), and mother (Emma-Jo Gruber). © Frances Jo Hamilton
Main Street America is pleased to announce the launch of a $1.8 million sub-grant program as part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Thriving Communities Program.
Beloit, Kansas © Shane Hampton
It is important to make sure that the growth of your community does not result in displacement or marginalization. Putting equity at the core of your transformation strategy helps you work towards measures of success that benefit everyone.
Creating real change in business ownership starts with local communities leading the way, backed by strong partnerships and collaborations.
MSA President and CEO Erin Barnes explores how a holiday market in a public park brought a new focus on growing humanitarian needs in downtown city centers.
Learn how Main Street America's work with the DOT's Thriving Communities Program is supporting transformative efforts with community partners like the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe.
Learn how Pikeville Pride partners with Pikeville Main Street to fostering a welcoming and inclusive community in their rural Kentucky town.
May is Jewish American Heritage Month! We collected ideas and resources to help you explore Jewish American history on your community and work toward a more inclusive Main Street.
At Fort Vancouver in Vancouver, Washington, Native Hawaiians played a critical role in the success of the Hudson Bay Company. Today, Vancouver’s Hawaiian history and heritage plays a crucial role in efforts to reenergize the city’s historic downtown.
Urban Impact Inc., harnesses strategic investments and collaborative efforts to foster a vibrant and sustainable future, from visionary adaptive reuse ventures to transformative development grants for small businesses and property owners in Birmingham, Alabama's historic 4th Avenue Black Business District.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $20B in federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) awards distributed to eight national non-profit consortiums. Main Street America looks forward to partnership and engagement with awardees and local programs to identify projects and expand impact throughout our network.
Hillsboro, Oregon © Alicia Gallo
Main Street America Program Officer encourages communities to advance equity for women to grow a more inclusive Movement.
Learn how this Louisiana town has used an accessibility-first approach to build a welcoming and inclusive community.
Downtown Ruston, Louisiana. Photo by Henry McCoy.
Tasha Sams, Manager of Education Programs, shares highlights of phase one of the Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (E3) in Rural Main Streets Program and the biggest takeaways from the workshop experiences.
In this video, learn more about the Williams’ family story, how the business is helping to revive downtown Helena, and the impact they’re having on a national level.
Learn how Main Street Now 2024 host city Birmingham, Alabama, is deepening their commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment.
© Mayor Randall Woodfin
In this episode of Main Street Business Insights, Matt sits down with Derrick Braziel, owner of Pata Roja Taqueria and co-founder of MORTAR, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Learn how micromobility can increase access, equity, and inclusion in your Main Street with examples from local programs across the network.
Learn how Albany, Georgia, recognizes their civil rights legacy and supports the African American community today.
Celebrate this traditional Mexican holiday with Gardnerville, Nevada.
Gardnerville, NV © Main Street Gardnerville
Tasha Sams shared their experiences at this unique Appalachian cultural festival.
Learn how this community in Oklahoma celebrated Dia de la Independencia with a big festival.
Tulsa, OK © Kendall Whittier Main Street
Learn how Rio Grande City is building a welcoming and inclusive city for both Mexicans and Americans.
Rio Grande City, TX © Rio Grande City
Learn how the Little Santo Domingo neighborhood of Miami is working with the Truist Foundation to strengthen pathways to small business ownership.
© Allapattah CDC
Learn how this Massachusetts community uses their farmer's market to increase access to fresh food.
Every year, H2BE holds their Juneteenth Mobility Stroll and Roll in Dearborn, MI, which celebrates Black Americans and improves local connections. Learn more about the event and why Juneteenth is important to this community.
Dearborn, MI © H2BE
Do you want to support the next generation of Main Street leadership! Start a youth board! Learn how Historic Downtown Clinton set theirs up and how your organization can benefit from one.
The Main Street Movement is a proud ally of the LGBTQ+ community. We spoke to Main Street leaders about how they support the LGBTQ+ community during Pride and beyond.
Steps you can take to engage your local Jewish community and make your Main Street feel welcoming for individual Jewish locals or visitors.
On May 9, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023 which included a cultural district located within a designated Main Street America community.
Miami, FL © NTHP
The annual Cinco de Mayo Parade and Fiesta in the Mexicantown Main Street district offers a great example of collaborative partnerships that honor the community’s cultural heritage and support local businesses through events.
Meet Kavi, the first Indian American Girl of the Year doll and a (fictional) resident of 2023 Great American Main Street Award winner Metuchen, New Jersey!
Metuchen, NJ © Lauren Beischer Photography
Community Development Block Grants are powerful tools for Main Street programs. Learn more about how CDBG's can be applied to our work and how you can advocate for the program
Main Street America was awarded $5.9 million to support 20 communities in the Main Streets Community of Practice through the Department of Transportation's Thriving Communities Program over the next two years.
We spoke to Debbie Ho, Executive Director at Chinatown Main Street, to learn about the history of women in Boston Chinatown.
Boston, MA © Kyle Klein
Meet the newest recipients of this grant program to build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities
Learn the unique history of Folsom, New Mexico, and how they are working with New Mexico MainStreet today.
Learn how this community is honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and telling the stories of Black leaders in their community.
Dublin, GA © Visit Dublin GA
Learn about the City of Boston’s efforts to invest in economic equity.
Downtown Sheridan Association partners with the Crow Tribe to host the annual First People’s Pow Wow event during the WYO Rodeo Week.
We spoke to three women who were awarded Inclusive Backing grants to learn more about their passions, their businesses, and their advice for other women.
Wixom, MI © Carissa Serylo
Storytelling is a critical part of the placemaking work that we do in Main Street districts. But are we sharing every story equally?
Jonesborough, TN © Jay Huron
Main Street Franklin is leading the way in showing how women business owners can be a powerful force for change in their communities.
Anette Landeros, President and CEO of Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, shares the importance of supporting Hispanic business owners and communities.
#EquityRising, Old Algiers Main Street Corporation's new job training program, seeks to combat rising cost of living by helping residents train for careers that will allow them to stay in their neighborhood.
We spoke to three Black business owners who were awarded Backing Small Businesses grants from Main Street America and American Express to better understand their challenges, successes, and the kinds of support that have helped them the most.
Camden, AR © Kimberly Moore Davis
June is Pride Month. Learn how Erie, PA, Emporia, KS, Frederick, MD, Macon, GA, and Billings, MT, celebrated the LGBTQ+ community.
Erie, PA © Dave Tamulonis
Stockbridge Main Street has made significant strides in exploring and sharing the story of Martin Luther King, father of civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.
Stockbridge, GA © Stockbridge Main Street
Juneteenth is the anniversary of the final emancipation of enslaved people in the US. Here are five examples of examples of community celebrations from Main Streets across the network.
Charles Town, WV © Elizabeth Ricketts
Learn how Downtown Florence has partnered with local Francis Marion University to provide opportunities for both students and local small businesses.
Learn about The Bottom, a historic African-American community in Thomasville, Georgia, and efforts to preserve it's history and share it's story.
Thomasville, GA © City of Thomasville
Learn how four Main Street communities celebrated Black History Month.
Oklahoma is home to the headquarters of nearly 40 federally recognized Native American tribes, and many of their offices, cultural sites, and museums are located close to or within Main Street districts.
El Reno, OK © El Reno Main Street
Kendall Whittier is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in an ever-diversifying Tulsa. Learn how they are making efforts to engage their large Hispanic community.
Tulsa, OK © Kendall Whittier Main Street
We spoke with two Black entrepreneurs in UrbanMain commercial districts: L. May Creations in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago and The Four Way in south Memphis, Tennessee.
Memphis, TN © Four Way
Heart of Biddeford shares the strategies they developed to support Black-owned businesses in their community.
Biddeford, ME © Heart of Biddeford
This May marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We explored the impact and legacy of this tragic event.
Tulsa, OK © Dr. Tiffany Crutcher
Main Street communities across the nation are celebrating Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the ending of slavery in America and the nation’s newest federal holiday!
Learn about the various programs and initiatives that Fremont is using to promote inclusive economic development.
Fremont, CA © Fremont Economic Development
From small business owners to public artists to local leaders, join us this month to amplify the impact of the LGBTQ+ community in your Main Street district.
San Luis Obispo, CA © Downtown SLO
Brooksville Main Street’s Women Leading the Way Campaign celebrated the legacy of the trailblazing women who made history in their community.
Brooksville, FL © Brooksville Main Street
For Black History Month, we want to recognize and celebrate the Black business owners and entrepreneurs who have overcome challenges and obstacles in launching and running their own businesses, thanks to resilience, creativity, and hard work.
In remembrance and in honor of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr., over 900 streets in the United States were named after him. Many are located predominantly in African American communities.
Milwaukee, WI © Historic King Drive BID
Downtown SLO has kept the magic of their holiday lights installation alive by evolving their winter wonderland into a dual celebration of Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year.
San Luis Obispo, CA © Downtown SLO
Main Street programs around the Network have created engaging and COVID-safe ways to honor and celebrate the histories and lives of Black Americans in their commercial districts.
Meet some amazing women business owners!
Learn how the Allapattah Collaborative in Miami, Florida, implements a range of initiatives to expand equitable development and ensure current businesses can not only remain in the corridor but also flourish.
Read the results of our survey aimed at understanding how business owners are managing the recovery from COVID-19 and responding to recent protests and social unrest related to police violence against Black Americans.
Our research team dug into some of the data about the state of Black-owned businesses on Main Street, the structural challenges they face, and how Main Streets can support them.
Since 2013, Try This West Virginia has sought to improve health environments in local communities as a collaboration of organizations working together to combat the health challenges facing West Virginians.
Supporting new and existing small businesses, and the entrepreneurs who run them, represents a vital aspect of the revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood business districts.
The Equitable Economic Development Fellowship is a two-year, one million-dollar effort funded by the Surdna Foundation and the Open Society Foundations to help equity, transparency, sustainability and community engagement become driving forces in local economic development efforts.
The Zuni Pueblo MainStreet is the nation's first (and so far, only) Native American Main Street community.
As part of the Edward Jones Placemaking on Main Challenge, Downtown Brattleboro created a pop-up, mobile mini-museum.
History and architecture play an active role in educating and immersing the next generation of preservationists in Le Mars. From museum visits, scavenger hunts, to "show and tell," involving the youth and senior communities is a priority for this Main Street.
Across the county, communities are embracing the arts as a catalyst for revitalization—of buildings, businesses, and local culture.
From walkability and transportation connectivity, to access to nature and availability of fresh food, place is inextricably linked to achieving positive health outcomes in rural America.
Appealing to mobility-challenged shoppers yields benefits beyond the store.
Main Street America is committed to helping build inclusive communities. Homelessness is an increasingly important issue facing Main Street communities big and small, urban and rural.
To understand the role that immigrant business owners play in Boston’s small business ecosystem, you need only to walk through any Boston Main Streets district.
New arrivals have made Shaw more diverse.
Preserving diverse populations, not just buildings.
