Stephenville celebrates new distinction as a ‘Texas Main Street City.’

BTS NEWS special report

AUSTIN - The Texas Historical Commission has designated Stephenville as an

official Texas Main Street community. The announcement was made Oct. 28 at the THC’s virtual quarterly commission meeting.

Effective Jan. 1, 2021, Stephenville joins 87 other designated Main Street communities

throughout Texas committed to a preservation-based economic development program

focused on their historic downtowns.

“This application took a huge amount of work on the part of many people in our community,” said city manager Allen Barnes. “Many businesses and people wrote letters of support for our application. Julie Smith, manager of the city’s Tourism and Visitors Bureau, coordinated the months-long effort to make our application a reality.”

Each year the THC selects up to five communities for official Main Street designation.

Local Main Street programs receive a wide range of services and technical

expertise from the THC, including design and historic preservation, planning, economic

development, organizational management and training.

The Texas program is affiliated with the National Main Street Center/Main Street America, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The unique, preservation-based Main Street Four Point Approach helps stimulate private sector downtown reinvestment in historic downtowns and helps retain, expand, and recruit small businesses, while also creating new jobs in Texas.

Since the first communities joined the program in 1981, more than $4.6 billion in overall reinvestment has been generated by the public and private sectors.

Additionally, almost 43,000 jobs and 11,000 small businesses have been created in the state’s Main Street designated downtowns.

“I believe today is a very important day in the life of our community, especially our downtown,” Barnes said. “The Texas Historical Commission has opened a new avenue for our downtown building owners to obtain help in improving their properties and their businesses.”

For more information, visit www.thc.texas.gov/mainstreet.