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The city’s primary street has undergone many changes, with more on the horizon.
Location
Downtown Salem
Features
Salem’s Main Street in downtown is a diverse, dense mix of retail, office and public buildings that features a farmers market, Roanoke College’s West Hall, a public library, county courthouse, city hall, restaurants, antique shops, banks and a pharmacy. Though Main Street extends from Salem’s border with Roanoke County to the south at Fort Lewis and to Salem’s north border with Roanoke City at Main’s intersection with Bartlett Road, the downtown section of Main Street encompasses the section between E. Burwell Street and Lake Spring Park at Green Street. U.S. routes 460 and 11 follow Main Street, making the street Salem’s signature thoroughfare.
History
Salem’s central corridor was part of the original design when the town was platted in 1802. While much of Main Street’s 19th-century history is no longer visible, there are some vestiges. The Salem Presbyterian Church, built in 1851, at Market and Main is one. So concerned were Salem residents about the loss of the city’s historic structures over prior decades that an effort was launched in the early 1970s called Save Old Salem. The effort helped to rescue the historic Williams-Brown house at East Main Street and Craig Avenue from demolition (later re-located and now home to the Salem Museum) and garnered successful nominations for other structures to the National Register of Historic Places.
In its earliest decades, Main Street’s most prominent visitor was President Andrew Jackson, who stayed at hotels and boarding houses in Salem when he rode horseback between the nation’s capital and his native Kentucky.
During the Civil War, Main Street, like the town itself, was looted by Federal troops under Union General William P. Averell in December 1863. “Two of the advance guard came charging up the main street…four abreast and pistols in hand, cocked ready to fire. Everyone in the street took to their heels, and wagons, horses, and every living thing joined in the stampede,” reported a correspondent for the Virginian newspaper.
In more recent times, Main Street was the scene of a gun battle between police and a man-and-wife team of bank robbers that held up the Farmers National Bank on May 19, 1970. The 58-year-old man and 70-year-old woman were both wounded and the $1,600 in stolen bills quickly recovered.
Significance
Main Street plays a prominent role in the civic life of Salem. Olde Salem Days attracts thousands of visitors and vendors on the second Saturday of September. Artists, crafters, musicians, an antique car show, food court and children’s activities in Library Square mix with the existing offerings along Main Street to provide one of the Roanoke Valley’s premier family events. Co-sponsored by the City of Salem, Olde Salem Days is a fund-raising event for the Salem Rotary Club. In 2016, the club was able to return $50,000 to the community in grants to local charitable organizations from the monies raised that year.
Beyond street festivals, Main Street downtown communicates the character of Salem. This critical element has made Main Street and the broader area considered by Salem as downtown to become the focus of intense interest and future planning. In the fall of 2014, city leaders, both elected and appointed, launched a formal design process to renew Main Street downtown. In January 2015, city officials hosted a public open house to present preliminary concepts and receive feedback. Over 100 citizens attended. Simultaneous to the open house, Salem launched a website dedicated to the redesign initiative, mailed out a downtown retail survey (1,152 responded), and released a schedule of follow-up meetings to engage stakeholders.
After several months, a steering committee narrowed the input into broad themes for improving downtown. Among the more specific recommendations were luring a hotel downtown, developing a night life attractive to younger adults, outdoor dining, Main Street façade grants, crafting a more historic look for Main Street (brick sidewalks, vintage signage and street lamps), enhancing green space and tree canopies, linking to the valley’s greenway system, encouraging downtown living and improving parking and accessibility. In short, Salem’s downtown needed its own “look” according to participants; a defined sense of place and community.
Since the launch of the downtown plan, much has happened. The 1928-era West Body Shop on Main Street has been acquired by local developer Ed Walker and his partners with the goal of converting the structure into retail and residential use that would represent a $2 million investment. The City of Salem has also awarded its first façade grants to businesses fronting Main Street to create a more improved, historic feel.
The plan has not come without controversy. Talk of possibly relocating the farmers market has created a stir, and some feel city leaders may move too fast in embracing changes that might not prove beneficial or cost effective.
What Happened
The renewed focus on downtown and Main Street specifically was the result of vacant storefronts and empty buildings that spiked in the late 2000s. Long-time retailers either closed or relocated, and Main Street began to have a sense of abandonment.
Frustrating to Salem officials, reasons for the departures were often beyond their control, such as high rents. While the Roanoke Valley has vibrant commercial villages with unique identities and night life (Grandin Road, Roanoke City Market, Daleville Town Center), downtown-plan participants noted that Salem does not; yet elements are present for such to exist. Main Street is within a few blocks of the Roanoke College campus with over 1,000 residential students. There is green space—Longwood Park, Younger Park, and Lake Spring Park—and other public amenities such as the farmers market and library.
The vision is that these and other existing assets can be leveraged to create more festivals and special events, a “downtown brand,” residential living, and a more eclectic mix of retail, restaurants, and small businesses.
The Downtown Plan, adopted by Salem City Council last year, describes Main Street and the area it anchors as “the heart of Salem” and its renewal and development as critical to the city’s future identity. Thus, the hope is that Main Street will continue to function in much the same way it did a century ago.
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