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http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=302255&ac=PHnws
Bath finds historic downtown built for success
Saved from urban renewal in the 1960s, the city offers a model for how to compete with malls and big-box stores.
The traditional character of Bath?s Front Street led the American Planning Association to declare it ?an architectural treasure? and one of the nation?s ?Top 10 Great Streets.?
The American Planning Association recently named Bath?s Front Street as one of the nation?s ?Top 10 Great Streets.? By preserving its architecture, the city has maintained its charm and authenticity.
Martha Mayo and Margaret Chapman have been key players in preserving the city?s downtown buildings, half of which were designated for destruction in the 1960s.
BATH ? Fifty years ago this month, a federal official arrived at City Hall with promising news: The city's shabby and outmoded downtown would probably win federal money for an ambitious urban renewal project.
Bath Iron Works and most of the city's political leaders embraced the plan, which called for razing blocks of Victorian and Italianate buildings to make way for wider streets and a pedestrian mall. Half of the 187 buildings downtown were designated for destruction.
Six years later, fierce opposition led by downtown merchants led to the plan's defeat at the polls by a 2-to-1 margin. After the vote, city officials gathered up the urban renewal blueprints and the appraisals of downtown properties and tossed them into Bath Iron Works' incinerator.
The rejection of urban renewal, though, was just the starting point for Bath's revival.
Opponents of the federal plan had argued that Bath residents and business owners could rescue the downtown on their own. And that's what they set out to do, adopting a strategy that took advantage of the city's rich architectural legacy. Their goal was to create a downtown atmosphere that would be both charming and authentic.
Today, Bath is recognized nationally as a model for how traditional downtowns can compete with big-box stores and shopping malls.
Residents in this largely working-class city of 9,200 people pride themselves on being able to buy almost anything they need downtown: stoves, refrigerators, furniture, toys, art supplies, yarn, kitchenware, women's apparel, shoes, jewelry, groceries, liquor, cakes, candy, cookies.
Renys is here, anchoring the heart of the six-block-long Front Street. There's a locally owned pharmacy, a print shop, a coffee house, two barber shops, two credit unions, three insurance agencies, four banks, four beauty shops and five restaurants.
The buildings' upper floors are filled with apartments, offices and artists' studios. A 94-room hotel is under construction.
The American Planning Association this fall named Front Street as one of the nation's top 10 downtown streets, calling it an "architectural treasure." It was the only place in New England to make the list.
"Unfortunately, a lot of small towns are just hanging by their fingernails," said James Schwab, a Chicago-based researcher for the American Planning Association. "To find one where things are going well is remarkable."
Gretchen Hartzog of South Bristol, who was buying an armful of kitchen appliances last week at a kitchen store on Front Street, said she would rather shop in Bath than go to a shopping mall.
Hartzog, a native of Texas, said many people may not realize how fortunate they are to have such a diverse and vibrant downtown shopping district.
"It's amazing," she said. "There are no places in America like this."
The downtown's success is due in part to the ability of businesses to work together, such as coordinating promotional events, store hours and storefront designs, said the city's planning director, Jim Upman.
In a sense, the city has learned from the success of modern shopping malls, he said.
"What we are doing is organizing and managing the downtown like a mall so we can compete with the malls," he said.
This Friday, for example, merchants have agreed to stay open until 8 p.m. The city will line Front and Centre streets with candle lanterns, and the banks will throw open their lobbies and have music and refreshments. Merchants are competing in a contest for the best decorated window.
The city has succeeded because it pays attention to the details, like installing brick sidewalks and planting shade trees, Schwab said.
All of that takes work.
People have contributed thousands of hours over the years. Through citizens groups and city boards, they have worked with property owners and drafted ordinances, such as Bath's historic preservation ordinance....
They have raised money for improvements, such as repairing the 94-year-old clock at the corner of Front and Centre streets.
Much of the work was done in the 1970s, said Margaret Chapman, who was the chairwoman of the Downtown Restoration Committee.
In 1975, a group of 40 officials and residents rode a bus to Newburyport, Mass., to look at some low-level streetlights. Newburyport had also rejected urban renewal.
Historic details like the old clock give the town a competitive advantage over the malls, said Tom Edwards, a retired banker from New Jersey who now works at Springer's Jewelers.
The store is in a building on Front Street that has been a jewelry store since 1907. The store looks virtually the same as it did a century ago, with even the same mahogany cases.
"We'd be crazy to change," Edwards said.
Bath is fortunate to be relatively isolated, bounded on the east by the wide Kennebec River and surrounded by small, rural communities. The big-box stores and shopping centers at Cook's Corner in Brunswick are more than six miles away.
The collaborative effort also is easier because the majority of the buildings on Front Street are owned by one company, the 122-year-old Sagadahoc Real Estate Association.
John Morse, who owned the company in the 1950s and 1960s, was an advocate for urban renewal, but embraced the new preservation vision after the plan's defeat.
"John Morse took ownership of this idea," Chapman said. "He was going along with it, and that helped tremendously." Morse's daughter, Jane, who manages the company now, has continued with the vision. She said she tries to recruit a mix of merchants and services that will create a diverse downtown.
It's a community effort, she said, explaining that it's difficult for her even to run an errand without getting advice from someone about what kind of store the downtown needs.
Martha Mayo, who for decades has been involved in preservation efforts, gives a lot of credit to Main Street Bath, a nonprofit program created 10 years ago by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The program, which has four committees made up of volunteers, brings businesses together to promote and support the downtown.
But Mayo said the success that Bath is enjoying today is possible only because the residents in 1965 had the good sense and courage to stand up to urban renewal and save their city.
"I say urban renewal is the best thing that never happened to Bath," she said.
TOP 10 GREAT STREETS
? Broadway Street, Skagway, Alaska
? President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock, Ark.
? Front Street, Bath, Maine
? Front Street, Traverse City, Mich.
? Main Street, Ann Arbor, Mich.
? Haddon Avenue, Collingswood, N.J.
? Main Street, Greenville, S.C.
? Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, Va.
? North Main Street, Wheeling, W.Va.
? East Newberry Boulevard, Milwaukee, Wis.
Bath finds historic downtown built for success
Saved from urban renewal in the 1960s, the city offers a model for how to compete with malls and big-box stores.
The traditional character of Bath?s Front Street led the American Planning Association to declare it ?an architectural treasure? and one of the nation?s ?Top 10 Great Streets.?
The American Planning Association recently named Bath?s Front Street as one of the nation?s ?Top 10 Great Streets.? By preserving its architecture, the city has maintained its charm and authenticity.
Martha Mayo and Margaret Chapman have been key players in preserving the city?s downtown buildings, half of which were designated for destruction in the 1960s.
BATH ? Fifty years ago this month, a federal official arrived at City Hall with promising news: The city's shabby and outmoded downtown would probably win federal money for an ambitious urban renewal project.
Bath Iron Works and most of the city's political leaders embraced the plan, which called for razing blocks of Victorian and Italianate buildings to make way for wider streets and a pedestrian mall. Half of the 187 buildings downtown were designated for destruction.
Six years later, fierce opposition led by downtown merchants led to the plan's defeat at the polls by a 2-to-1 margin. After the vote, city officials gathered up the urban renewal blueprints and the appraisals of downtown properties and tossed them into Bath Iron Works' incinerator.
The rejection of urban renewal, though, was just the starting point for Bath's revival.
Opponents of the federal plan had argued that Bath residents and business owners could rescue the downtown on their own. And that's what they set out to do, adopting a strategy that took advantage of the city's rich architectural legacy. Their goal was to create a downtown atmosphere that would be both charming and authentic.
Today, Bath is recognized nationally as a model for how traditional downtowns can compete with big-box stores and shopping malls.
Residents in this largely working-class city of 9,200 people pride themselves on being able to buy almost anything they need downtown: stoves, refrigerators, furniture, toys, art supplies, yarn, kitchenware, women's apparel, shoes, jewelry, groceries, liquor, cakes, candy, cookies.
Renys is here, anchoring the heart of the six-block-long Front Street. There's a locally owned pharmacy, a print shop, a coffee house, two barber shops, two credit unions, three insurance agencies, four banks, four beauty shops and five restaurants.
The buildings' upper floors are filled with apartments, offices and artists' studios. A 94-room hotel is under construction.
The American Planning Association this fall named Front Street as one of the nation's top 10 downtown streets, calling it an "architectural treasure." It was the only place in New England to make the list.
"Unfortunately, a lot of small towns are just hanging by their fingernails," said James Schwab, a Chicago-based researcher for the American Planning Association. "To find one where things are going well is remarkable."
Gretchen Hartzog of South Bristol, who was buying an armful of kitchen appliances last week at a kitchen store on Front Street, said she would rather shop in Bath than go to a shopping mall.
Hartzog, a native of Texas, said many people may not realize how fortunate they are to have such a diverse and vibrant downtown shopping district.
"It's amazing," she said. "There are no places in America like this."
The downtown's success is due in part to the ability of businesses to work together, such as coordinating promotional events, store hours and storefront designs, said the city's planning director, Jim Upman.
In a sense, the city has learned from the success of modern shopping malls, he said.
"What we are doing is organizing and managing the downtown like a mall so we can compete with the malls," he said.
This Friday, for example, merchants have agreed to stay open until 8 p.m. The city will line Front and Centre streets with candle lanterns, and the banks will throw open their lobbies and have music and refreshments. Merchants are competing in a contest for the best decorated window.
The city has succeeded because it pays attention to the details, like installing brick sidewalks and planting shade trees, Schwab said.
All of that takes work.
People have contributed thousands of hours over the years. Through citizens groups and city boards, they have worked with property owners and drafted ordinances, such as Bath's historic preservation ordinance....
They have raised money for improvements, such as repairing the 94-year-old clock at the corner of Front and Centre streets.
Much of the work was done in the 1970s, said Margaret Chapman, who was the chairwoman of the Downtown Restoration Committee.
In 1975, a group of 40 officials and residents rode a bus to Newburyport, Mass., to look at some low-level streetlights. Newburyport had also rejected urban renewal.
Historic details like the old clock give the town a competitive advantage over the malls, said Tom Edwards, a retired banker from New Jersey who now works at Springer's Jewelers.
The store is in a building on Front Street that has been a jewelry store since 1907. The store looks virtually the same as it did a century ago, with even the same mahogany cases.
"We'd be crazy to change," Edwards said.
Bath is fortunate to be relatively isolated, bounded on the east by the wide Kennebec River and surrounded by small, rural communities. The big-box stores and shopping centers at Cook's Corner in Brunswick are more than six miles away.
The collaborative effort also is easier because the majority of the buildings on Front Street are owned by one company, the 122-year-old Sagadahoc Real Estate Association.
John Morse, who owned the company in the 1950s and 1960s, was an advocate for urban renewal, but embraced the new preservation vision after the plan's defeat.
"John Morse took ownership of this idea," Chapman said. "He was going along with it, and that helped tremendously." Morse's daughter, Jane, who manages the company now, has continued with the vision. She said she tries to recruit a mix of merchants and services that will create a diverse downtown.
It's a community effort, she said, explaining that it's difficult for her even to run an errand without getting advice from someone about what kind of store the downtown needs.
Martha Mayo, who for decades has been involved in preservation efforts, gives a lot of credit to Main Street Bath, a nonprofit program created 10 years ago by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The program, which has four committees made up of volunteers, brings businesses together to promote and support the downtown.
But Mayo said the success that Bath is enjoying today is possible only because the residents in 1965 had the good sense and courage to stand up to urban renewal and save their city.
"I say urban renewal is the best thing that never happened to Bath," she said.
TOP 10 GREAT STREETS
? Broadway Street, Skagway, Alaska
? President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock, Ark.
? Front Street, Bath, Maine
? Front Street, Traverse City, Mich.
? Main Street, Ann Arbor, Mich.
? Haddon Avenue, Collingswood, N.J.
? Main Street, Greenville, S.C.
? Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, Va.
? North Main Street, Wheeling, W.Va.
? East Newberry Boulevard, Milwaukee, Wis.