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The City of Nelsonville is a proud member of Heritage Ohio's Main Street Program!

For the latest on Nelsonville events, projects, and merchandise, visit Nelsonville Main Street's website.

Thanks to the invaluable efforts of many individuals and groups working together toward preserving the historical and cultural heritage of Nelsonville we have been selected as a Main Street Community. 

The Ohio Main Street Program, administered by Heritage Ohio, has been working with communities across the state to revitalize their historic or traditional commercial areas.  Based in historic preservation, the Main Street approach was developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save historic commercial architecture and the fabric of American communities' built environment, but has become a powerful economic development tool as well.

As a Main Street community, Nelsonville will be joining a coast-to-coast movement led by the National Main Street Center involving more than 1,000 community programs across the country.  Together, these programs have produced an investment in downtown districts of more than $5 billion and spurred the rehabilitation of countless historic structures, while providing space for 27,000 net new businesses and creating 100,000 net new jobs for local citizens.  It is our goal to bring about similar results for the community of Nelsonville and make our vision of a vibrant downtown business district a reality.

The Main Street Program uses a four point approach to achieve results through the creation of four central committees.  These committees are the backbone of the Main Street Program as they engage downtown merchants, civic groups, and community volunteers to participate in everything from planning to project implementation. 

  1. Organization is the building of consensus and cooperation between the groups that play a role in the downtown. Many individuals and organizations in the community have a stake in the economic viability of the downtown.
  2. Design involves improving the downtown's image by improving its physical appearance - not just the appearance of buildings, but also of street lights, window displays, parking areas, signs, sidewalks, streetscapes, landscaping, promotional materials and all other elements that convey a visual message about what the downtown is and what it has to offer.
  3. Promotion involves marketing the downtown's unique characteristics to shoppers, investors, new businesses, tourists, and others.  Effective promotion creates a positive image of the downtown through retail promotional activity and special events utilizing the downtown as a stage area of community activities.
  4. Economic Restructuring involves strengthening the existing economic base of the downtown while diversifying it.  Economic Restructuring activities include helping existing downtown businesses expand, recruiting new businesses, providing a balanced mix, converting unused space into productive property, and sharpening the competitiveness of downtown merchants