Main Street

Denison  Main Street

Downtown Denison

Downtown Denison is a great place to live, work, play, and start a business. The Main Street Office works hand in hand with business and property owners, volunteers, partners, and city staff to facilitate all this.

The city’s main street director works with the city-appointed Main Street Advisory Board and Denison Main Street Inc. on downtown revitalization. The groups focus on the central business district. Downtown Denison Inc. is a merchants' nonprofit that also supports downtown. 

Main Street Program

Denison started the Main Street program in 1988 as a self-initiated city and became an official Main Street city through the Texas Historical Commission in 1989. 

Denison is one of 90 official Main Street programs in Texas. The Main Street program helps cities revitalize their historic downtowns utilizing the Four-Point Approach® developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was first used in 1977. 

Texas Main Street Program

The Texas Main Street Program (TMSP) is part of the Community Heritage Development Division of the Texas Historical Commission. The TMSP is the state coordinating program that operates in affiliation with the National Main Street Center of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1981, following a pilot project of the national center that studied ways to address the decline of America’s downtowns, the TMSP became one of the first 6 state coordinating programs in the nation. 

There are many reasons why downtown revitalization is a crucial tool for enhancing the economic and social health of a community. In addition to being the most visible indicator of community pride and economic health, the historic downtown is also the foundation of community heritage. The historic buildings in a downtown are prime locations for the establishment of unique entrepreneurial businesses and can also be tourism attractors, all of which add to the community’s sales tax collections and property values.

 

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