Revitalizing A Sense of Place: Placemaking Through the Main Street Four Point Approach

Abstract

A common sight in the early 1900s, downtowns were seen as a thriving and lively location captured by Norman Rockwell’s iconic Americana paintings. However, that romanticized version of the American downtown is slowly being replaced with vacant and deteriorating main streets across the country. Over the past 50 years, downtowns across America have lost their connection to their communities and become unwanted and impassive locale to community members. In the age of globalization, it is important that communities keep their own identity. Every community has a story that sets itself apart and there is no better place for that story to be told than through its downtown district. A downtown’s greatest asset is providing an alternative to the generic business and suburban environments that have grown in a community. A successful downtown represents a distinct environment in the community that community members identify with and form an attachment to through a sense of place.