OPINION

The next great downtown

The most encouraging trend I've seen during my travels across Arkansas this year is the increasing number of communities reviving their downtowns. After decades of watching businesses abandon downtown in order to be near the big box stores "out on the highway" or "by the interstate," these communities are re-investing in their historic cores. I've found one common denominator: The revitalization efforts that are most successful include a library.

Consider the heroic work that Bobby Roberts did when he was director of the Central Arkansas Library System. He had a vision for the Fones Brothers Hardware Co. warehouse and for what's now the River Market District in downtown Little Rock when few others did.

Roberts oversaw the renovation of what was an eyesore into the main branch of the CALS system. He then surrounded it with a combination of new construction and additional renovations to create an island of culture, research and learning downtown.

CALS, now under the direction of Nate Coulter, recently rebranded the area as Library Square. River Market Books & Gifts, which is just east of the library, changed its name to The Bookstore at Library Square. The Butler Center Galleries are now known as the Galleries at Library Square.

Fayetteville, meanwhile, built a stunning library in 2004. Since that time, it has seen a 44 percent increase in circulation. The old City Hospital property, just south of the Fayetteville Public Library at Rock Street and School Avenue, will be the home of an expansion that will almost double the library's size. Demolition has been taking place in recent months. The 70,000-square-foot extension is expected to be completed in 2020. It will include an audio/video recording studio, a photo studio, a virtual reality room, an expanded youth services area and an outdoor courtyard.

"We're the envy of libraries throughout the entire state," library executive director David Johnson told the Fayetteville Flyer when demolition began back in July. "But we're filling this library up pretty quickly. Our spaces can no longer accommodate the demand we're experiencing on a day-to-day basis."

Fayetteville's population was about 64,000 when the current facility opened in 2004. It's now more than 80,000 and is projected to hit 115,000 by 2030.

My vote for the next great downtown in Arkansas goes to Batesville. And yes, a library figures in the equation. The Independence County Library has a new home in the downtown building that long housed Barnett Brothers Department Store. The building was constructed in 1903-04 and remodeled in 1938 and 1978.

Bill Walmsley, a former state senator and circuit judge, led the charge for the $3.15 million renovation. The previous library had taken up 5,000 square feet in the city's former federal building. Now there are 23,000 square feet. Little Rock architectural firm Polk Stanley Wilcox handled the design, and Clark Contractors completed the transformation. A grand opening ceremony was held in July.

"We issued 450 new library cards the first month this facility was open," Walmsley says. "In April, we had 4,000 visitors to the old facility. In July, we had almost 7,000 visitors in the new library. Circulation of materials went from 7,500 in April to 14,000 in July. We have 30 volunteers who donate 470 hours of work here each month. We had an average of one program a month at the old location, and we have 10 here."

There's a gift shop, cafe, law library, outdoor patio and an area for teenagers that stays open until 6 p.m. each weekday so students will have a place to do homework until their parents get off work. Naming opportunities were offered for 16 areas of the library, and more than $500,000 was raised from the private sector. The library is now an anchor of downtown.

Another anchor is the Melba Theater. The building that houses the Melba was once the home of a mercantile store. It became a theater in 1940, closed in the 1990s, was reopened in 2000 and was renovated in 2015-16 by Adam and Mandi Curtwright and Joe and Janelle Shell. The two couples raised $500,000 for a complete renovation, even selling individual seats.

"We were in here working on this place every night and all day on weekends for 16 months," Adam Curtwright says. "We wanted to make this a community project so people would feel like they had a personal investment. It all came together on Aug. 12, 2016, when people were lined up down the street to see what we had done."

"Everybody we approached wanted to be a part of this effort," Joe Shell says. "It was not a get-rich-quick plan. In fact, we're not going to get rich at all. But we've done something for Batesville."

The theater has 410 seats and fills them with school groups for a series of holiday films that are shown in the weeks leading up to Christmas. When National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is shown, a volunteer parks an old recreational vehicle on Main Street and dresses as Cousin Eddie, a character in the film.

Main Street is now the home of hip restaurants and coffee shops such as 109 Main and The Pinto.

"I attended the ribbon-cutting for the Melba and liked the buzz downtown," says Cliff Brown, one of the owners of 109 Main. "Our original idea was to have a bar with a little bit of food. We later began serving tapas-style items. We now have a full menu. The journey hasn't been easy, but it has been satisfying. We like to think that we offer a slice of the big city in a small town."

Across the street at The Pinto, Haley and Brice Stephens purchased a lot that had been used for parking and built a structure out of native stone that blends well with the older buildings on Main Street. They opened in September 2016 as just a coffee shop but later began selling food. Most of the furnishings inside were reclaimed from elsewhere. The stools at the counter were from Ray's Cafe at Batesville.

A boutique hotel soon will be added on Main Street, along with apartments.

"Downtown was on life support a decade ago," says Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh. "Of the 56 buildings in the downtown business district, 23 were empty. Now there are either entities occupying all of those buildings or renovation plans in place. It has taken a lot of people to make it happen, and we're not finished yet."

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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Editorial on 11/11/2018

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