Downtown Waynesville Celebrates 40 Years as a Main Street Community
Cheers to 40 Years
As we celebrate Downtown Waynesville’s 40th anniversary as a North Carolina Main Street community, I’m reminded that the story of Main Street’s success isn’t really about buildings, sidewalks, streetscapes or even businesses.
It is a story about people.
As I’ve combed through four decades of newspaper clippings, photographs, meeting minutes and memories, what inspires me most is the spirit of community at the core of our story. The Downtown Waynesville Association (DWA) that formed in 1986 and later became the Downtown Waynesville Commission (DWC) in 2022, began with a group of local businessmen and women who saw what was coming and refused to let that be the end of their story.
When decline seemed inevitable, this group of Waynesville businesspeople banded together, dug into their pockets and rolled up their sleeves. They envisioned Main Street bustling with shoppers, storefronts alive with fancy window displays and happy shop owners, restored architecture and modern infrastructure, holiday festivals and families making memories. At a time when downtowns across America were losing stores to sprawling malls in outlying areas and it would have been easy to accept that fate, this group dared to dream big.
Today, we are living that dream.
We remain a community of property owners, entrepreneurs, artists, community builders and dreamers working together to preserve what our colleagues 40 years ago envisioned, and to continue writing Downtown Waynesville’s story.
Since joining the Main Street movement in 1986, more than $218 million has been invested into Waynesville’s Municipal Service District, also downtown’s historic commercial corridor, through public and private investments tracked by N.C. Main Street and Rural Planning, within the N.C. Department of Commerce. Every restored façade, every thriving storefront, every festival that fills our streets, every piece of public art, every gathering that brings neighbors together and every visitor who falls in love with our downtown is part of this remarkable tale.
Throughout this video, you will see highlights from Downtown Waynesville’s story — marking the milestones and transformations. But more importantly, notice the people.
Some made contributions that changed downtown in significant ways. Others simply showed up to perform small tasks when something needed to be done. Notice how they came together.
The challenges we face today look different than they did 40 years ago, but the answer is the same — a community working together for a shared vision, built on partnerships and common goals. Our future depends upon people willing to believe enough to invest, advocate, preserve, nurture and imagine what Downtown Waynesville can become 40 years from now.
It’s up to us to determine where the story goes from here. As we walk in the shade of trees planted by the visionaries of past years, we’re planning for the same bright future. We are working together to write a story that future generations will be proud to share. When the next group of visionaries gathers in 2066 to celebrate 80 years of Downtown Waynesville’s success, the focus will still be on the people, working together, to make their dreams for Waynesville come true.
About Downtown Waynesville
Downtown Waynesville has been part of the North Carolina Main Street program since 1986. Through the Downtown Waynesville Commission and partnerships with the Town of Waynesville, downtown businesses, property owners, volunteers and community organizations, the community works to strengthen the economic vitality, historic character and quality of life of Waynesville’s downtown district.
