The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced Wednesday that Madisonville has achieved Tennessee Main Street accreditation.
Congratulations to Madisonville on achieving Tennessee Main Street accreditation.
This Monroe County community will join 42 other Tennessee cities and towns, which have participated in the downtown revitalization program.
Learn more ➡️ https://t.co/Ul7fEDOCRW pic.twitter.com/VGYVYKZwKk
— TNECD (@TNECD) July 13, 2022
The Tennessee Main Street Program is administered by TNECD’s Rural Development Division.
“At the heart of every vibrant Tennessee city is a thriving downtown district,” TNECD Commissioner Stuart McWhorter said in a statement. “The Tennessee Main Street program is an integral part of our rural and community development efforts, and we are eager to partner with Madisonville community leaders as they develop sustainable revitalization efforts in their downtown.”
The city, which is the county seat of Monroe County in Southeast Tennessee, joins 42 other Tennessee Main Street communities that are accredited through the state program and Main Street America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, according to a press release by TNECD.
The Main Street Program provides training, support and grant opportunities to assist in downtown revitalization efforts, TNECD notes. The program will focus on adaptive reuse of historic commercial buildings for community events and economic vitality.
Excluding Madisonville, the 42 accredited Tennessee Main Street communities are spread across the state and include Athens, Bolivar, Bristol, Brownsville, Centerville, Cleveland, Clifton, Clinton, Collierville, Columbia, Cookeville, Dayton, Dyersburg, Elizabethton, Fayetteville, Franklin, Gallatin, Greeneville, Humboldt, Jackson, Johnson City, Jonesborough, Kingsport, Lawrenceburg, Lebanon, Livingston, Maryville, McKenzie, McMinnville, Morristown, Mount Pleasant, Murfreesboro, Paris, Pulaski, Ripley, Rogersville, Savannah, Sevierville, Sweetwater, Tiptonville, Union City, and Winchester.
The Tennessee Main Street Program requires communities to illustrate a commitment from local government and other local organizations, an adequate organizational budget, a strong historic preservation ethic, a collection of historic commercial buildings, and a walkable district, according to TNECD.
“TNECD is excited to welcome Madisonville to the Main Street America network,” Tennessee Main Street Program Director Nancy Williams said in a statement. “They successfully completed the Tennessee Downtowns program with a new downtown food truck park and have already secured some grant funding to address a long-vacant downtown building.”
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Madisonville, Tennessee” by Brian Stansberry. CC BY 3.0.
I certainly agree that a town to be vibrant definitely needs a strong Downtown (Central Business District) in lieu of suburban sprawl.
Of particular interest about Madisonville is its historic role as home to the late Congressperson and Senator Carey Estes Kefauver, a fairly progressive Democrat (at least on DOMESTIC issues). Even though he and his family were supposedly the SOLE Democrats in this historically Republican town, they would enjoy the widespread support of this town as well as the whole state DESPITE the predominantly conservative nature of Tennessee’s electorate. The fact that PROGRESSIVE candidates like Kefauver could acquire and retain the loyalty of towns like Madisonville should be the subject of historical inquiry into 20th Century Tennessee politics.