A blueprint for Main Street Revitallization

STEVENSVILLE — It’s a typical afternoon for Joan Prather. She’s at her desk, phone fixed to her ear, dialing for dollars.

By MEA ANDREWS, The Missoulian

Twenty-five dollars to sponsor a First Friday wagon ride? Sure, says one business owner. Another says yes, too. No hesitation.

Raising money is not always so easy, but these days, Prather hears more yeas than nays.

She is director of the Stevensville Main Street Association, formed less than three years ago to help the town’s Main Street grow and improve.

Prather, a third-generation Bitterrooter who knows the valley north and south, is an organizer, money-raiser, note-taker, treat-buyer, budget-maker, volunteer coordinator, marketing director and multi-tasking cheerleader for the association and its core business district, the 100-or-so shops, restaurants and offices that line the primary artery through this town of 2,100 people.

When the association got started, six storefronts in that downtown area were empty. Without someone stepping in, the town would crumble, brick by brick, townspeople feared.

That would be a shame: Stevensville is believed to be the oldest white settlement and the earliest permanent settlement in Montana, forming in 1841 around St. Mary’s Mission and the Jesuits who came to open it. The town boasted Montana’s first church, school and grist mill, was the first seat for Ravalli County. It also was home to the territory’s first doctor and pharmacist familiar with western medicine — Father Anthony Ravalli, a Jesuit priest who dispensed medicine from an opening in the wall of his home, which is still standing.

Main Street in Stevensville is handsome, too: not too long, still in good shape, tastefully maintained. Frontier architecture remains and, although the 1905 ‘‘Post Office fire” took out nine of the oldest structures, several pre-1900 buildings are left.

‘‘If Main Street is healthy, it reflects on everything,” says Prather. ‘‘It reflects on your school, on whether the town seems a good place to raise a family, on whether it is a desirable place to live.”

The Main Street Association began with a handful of concerned citizens who found a handful of contributors willing to commit to three years of donations. City government is involved, along with private donors, businesses and local banks.

They’re linked to a national organization — part of the National Main Street Center National Trust for Historic Preservation — that helps revitalize downtowns, not just as shopping streets but also as centers for community activities.

Stevensville’s association is following the national group’s tried-and-true formula, setting up local committees and launching local projects tailored for Stevensville’s needs, its history and its vision of itself.

‘‘We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” Prather said. ‘‘We’ve got to stick to our main job. We have to keep focusing on Main Street.”

In the last two years, the group partnered with banks and City Hall to set up low-interest loans for fixing up facades of the downtown businesses. ‘‘Main Street at Work” sessions offer once-a-month seminars where one business shows others what it does, to forge a tighter community and help when visitors have questions about the town.

Association members work closely with some of the town’s unique places — the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge and St. Mary’s Mission, for example — to coordinate activities for visitors. The goal: to draw people downtown not just to spend money but also to walk around and experience its small-town, western feel.

‘‘If they have a good experience,” Prather says, ‘‘they’ll come back.” Next time they drive along Highway 93 they’ll take the one-mile detour for a meal at Food Fetish or treats at Charbonneau’s Chocolate Co. or a latte and pastry at the Olde Coffee Mill.

One of Stevensville’s more visible ventures is its monthly First Friday event, on the first Friday of each month. Downtown shops stay open later than usual to welcome new artists’ work in the galleries, live music in downtown eateries and bars, special menus and special sales. That’s where the wagon rides come in: Stores sponsor a team of horses and their driver and visitors can take a wagon ride up and down Main Street during the evening.

New and expanding businesses have filled five of those six vacant storefronts, a welcome sign of health and progress. Organizations such as the Garden Club and Civic Club, which supported Stevensville long before the Main Street Association, still are strong, involved influences.

Many Montana towns are in the same struggle, searching for a way to maintain their personality and life in a time of big box stores and metro shopping malls. Small-town ambiance, locally made goods, home-cooked meals and unique menus are a draw for tourists and locals alike.

‘‘We are not competing with Missoula,” says Maureen Wali, president of the board of directors of the Stevensville Main Street Association. ‘‘What we want people to experience here is the charm of the town, the charm of the people, the history and beauty of the place. If we can accomplish that, we will have a town that’ll be around for a long time.”

Looking at Stevensville’s Main Street today ‘‘gives us a shot of energy,” says Bill Perrin, a board member for the association. ‘‘We have a feeling of self-esteem and community.”

Stevensville’s Main Street Association is now in its third year, a pivotal time in its development. Phone calls still must be made and money raised. Volunteers are still sought and courted.

The work is never done.

‘‘Nobody will do this for us,” said Perrin. ‘‘We have the answers. We will move ahead based on our own energy.”

http://helenair.com/articles/2003/04/20/montana/c04042003_01.txt