What happens when the central square of a once-thriving small town — indeed, the governmental seat of its surrounding county — begins to decay amid declining revenues, general neglect and disrepair? What happens when classic architectural details begin to disintegrate on the deteriorating historic structures that once proudly drew the community’s residents into town to shop, dine and mingle? Does a white knight ever ride into such a place to rescue it from the mire?

In the case of Bolivar, Tennessee, the answer was a resounding yes.

The town, named in honor of the famed South American patriot and liberator, Simon Bolivar, is home to approximately 6,000 residents.

At the same time that Bolivar’s town officials were vying for state funding to revitalize the courthouse, several local businessmen were busy crafting a much larger plan to bring prosperity and an old-fashioned sense of community back to the town square. The group hired Memphis-based firm Looney Ricks Kiss Architects, Inc., in concert with Page/Duke landscape architects of Nashville, to study how to revitalize the area around the courthouse and to create a master plan. The resulting Hardeman County Development Strategy was presented to Tennessee’s Governor in September 2007.

The plan recommended that “rural stewardship” be used to create an incentive-based regional growth strategy that preserves and enhances the county’s best assets. The plan focused on the inter-relationships between historic preservation, conservation, transportation and tourism. In it, several major initiatives were outlined, featuring a master plan for downtown Bolivar, as well as the creation of a life-like battlefield memorial, improved access to the nearby Hatchie River, and construction of a new lake as part of the Bill Dance Signature Lake Trail throughout Tennessee.

The old and new now peacefully co-exist on the square, where this centuries-old oak tree graces the courthouse lawn, surrounded by a new brick wall with concrete capstones designed by Ben Page.

The town was one of only six state jurisdictions to be awarded funds through The Courthouse Square Revitalization Act of 2005. With the help of Ben Page, Looney Ricks Kiss, and others, the project launched. Historic buildings around the square were restored, and new retail tenants began moving in. Sidewalks were updated, and streetscapes were planted with ginkgoes and crape myrtles. The courthouse was renovated, and a new 300-seat outdoor amphitheater was put in place just behind it.

To date, a number of projects have been completed, and the goal of bringing people back to the square has been realized. Each week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, town residents converge around the courthouse, often hundreds in all, to enjoy concerts in the amphitheater.

Location:

The town of Bolivar, with a population of about 6,000, is located in Hardeman County, just 45 minutes east of Memphis, Tennessee. The area’s current economy is based on light manufacturing, wood milling and agriculture.

HARDEMAN COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY:

Conceived and designed by Ben Page as a gathering place for the community, the ampitheater behind the courthouse seats nearly 300 people.

The plan that was presented to the Governor in September 2007 included the following projects:

• Bolivar Downtown Master Plan: Using funds awarded through The Courthouse Square Revitalization Act of 2005, establish Bolivar as an attractive and desirable place to live, work and play.
• Highway By-Pass: Create a boulevard-type by-pass that traverses the countryside adjacent to the city in order to divert large trucks away from the courthouse square.
• Bolivar/Hardeman County Airport: Improve the existing hangar and runways, build a new entrance and access roads, and construct a new terminal to serve the growing needs of the community and the region and to make the area more accessible to tourists.

Warren Street, behind the Courthouse, is blocked off during outdoor concerts so the stage can be set up for the band.

• Hatchie River: Create the Hatchie River Conservancy with a mission torestore, preserve and enhance use of the Hatchie River, designated by The Nature Conservancy as one of the 75 last great places on earth most deserving of protection for future generations.
• Lake Silerton: Create an additional asset to attract tourism and serve as a catalyst for community development, while also creating a centerpiece for recreational enjoyment for the region.
• Ghost of Davis Bridge: Create a three-dimensional Civil War battlefield complete with life-size figures carved from limestone at the site of the Battle of Hatchie Bridge (also called Davis Bridge).

The new lampstands downtown, fashioned to look old, proudly display banners promoting the weekly Music on the Square events, which showcase local talent.

COMPLETED PROJECTS (AS OF 10 OCTOBER, 2009):

• Restoration of the historic Hardeman County Courthouse.
• Construction of a 300-seat amphitheater adjacent to the courthouse.
• Improvements to the square’s sidewalks and streetscapes, including landscaping and lighting.
• Restoration of more than 50 buildings surrounding the Courthouse square.
• Construction of a timber-framed pavilion that is home to the new Farmers’ Market, just a block from Court Square.

FUTURE PROJECTS SLATED FOR DEVELOPMENT:

• Turn a fire-ravaged block along Court Square into a remarkable theater of performing arts, blending the new (a grand theater with state-of-the-art acoustics) with the historic by transforming the old Bank of Bolivar building (listed in the National Register of Historic Places) into a breathtaking lobby (with 25-foot ceilings and balconies) and reception hall.
• Construct a charming new hotel fashioned from a row of Reconstruction Era buildings and storefronts right on Court Square.
• Construct a courtyard for relaxing or dining immediately adjacent to Farmers’ Market.

For more information on Bolivar, contact Marni Truelove, mtruelove4@comcast.net, 615.636.2077

I recently visited a downtown development nonprofit in a local small town. The executive director told a story about how, within the first couple months of his job, a local church informed the community that they were going to take down one of their historic buildings in order to add parking. The new director was forced to launch a campaign to save the building. The episode caused a lot of pain in the community, and the building was lost.

Since downtown organizations are continually facing conflicts about all sorts of issues, including development pressures, I thought I would share with you some of the principles of conflict management taught to me by the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center in North Carolina.

Staff of the Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County, NC

Positions vs interests

A lot of times we argue from a set-in-stone position instead of an underlying issue. An example would be two people arguing about whether a window should be open or shut in a room.

Position 1: The window needs to be closed.

Position 2: The window needs to be open.

Interest 1: Raising the temperature of the room.

Interest 2: Keeping pollen out of the room.

Granted, this is a springtime example that I am giving you in the middle of winter, but you can remember what spring was like, can’t you? I believe this example came from Getting to Yes, by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Once you look at the problem from an interest standpoint, you can come up with an easy solution that solves both party’s problems in a spirit of collaboration.

Solution: Raise the thermostat.

This is assuming that neither party has an interest to keep the planet viable, which happens a lot.

“I” messages vs “you” messages

Anyone who has ever been involved in a conflict will know that you can’t negotiate with someone by constantly pointing the finger back at them. If you do that, all they have to say is, “No, that’s not true,” and you don’t get anywhere. If instead, you focus on what your own thoughts and feelings are, then the other party is more inclined to listen.

Conflict management styles

Competing: Pursuing personal concerns at the expense of someone else.

Accommodating: Yielding to the other party’s point of view.

Avoiding: Not addressing the conflict.

Compromising: Seeking the middle ground.

Collaborating: Working together to come up with a solution that is pleasing to both parties.

Would you agree that collaborating is the desired conflict management style in most cases? However, the other styles have their appropriate uses. For example, you don’t want to collaborate with someone who does not want  to get out of a burning building if they don’t want to go.

Perfection vs discovery

Perfection: We act as a judge. Things are black and white. Failure is seen as bad. This can lead to frustration.

Discovery: We act as a coach. You look for creative solutions. There is more of an attitude of acceptance. This can lead to fascination.

This is the tip of the iceberg. If you would like more information, feel free to contact me, or, particularly if you are local, the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center.

Our friend Mike Knutson over at Reimagine Rural saw our post about Jim Thorpe, and this got him thinking about a recent post he made about third places.  Third places are those hot spots in your community where you can share ideas, such as coffee shops.  Mike goes into detail about the characteristics of third places here.  Third places are neutral ground,  accessible and accommodating, and are places where you can routinely run into regulars.   In case you are wondering, the first place is your home and second place is your work.

How important are third places to you?  Should we make a special effort to design communities with third places?

Photo by Brady Dale

I could say a lot about the small towns in the coal-mining area of northeast Pennsylvania.  I am a product of the region–my grandparents came over from Italy to work as laborers in the mines, and eventually settled in the towns of Pittson and West Pittston.   Pittston welcomed laborers from southern Italy, and West Pittson welcomed the higher-standing northerners, at least that’s what my Aunt Rose tells me.  One of my grandfathers was from the north and one was from the south, so they settled in the appropriate towns, separated by the Susquehanna River.  Regardless of their class, both grandfathers worked in the mines, and, in the case of  my mother’s father, Cesare, died in them.

I’ve been traveling to this region during the holidays for my entire life to visit with my extended family, but I’ve never done much exploring beyond the homesteads.  However, this past Christmas, an old friend from high school said he would be in the area.  Rick and his wife Anna would be visiting Anna’s family in Hometown, PA.  Since we both liked to explore historic small towns, Rick suggested meeting up in the nearby Jim Thorpe for lunch.

The first thing you assume when you visit Jim Thorpe is that the town’s namesake, the famed Native-American Olympian and overall sportsman, was a native of the town.  You would be wrong to assume that.  The town, originally named Mauch Chunk, was looking to rename itself to attract businesses in 1953, the year of Jim’s death.  After negotiations with his widow, the town “bought his remains,” erected a monument, and renamed the town in his honor.  He was from the midwest, although he did attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in nearby Carlisle, PA.

Jim’s name was pretty well-known around that time, but I have no idea whether the scheme caused a positive blip in the economic health of the town.  Now, what I really want to know is how they got their original name, Mauch Chunk.  Can someone help me with that?

There are several other historical nuggets that really caught my attention during my brief visit here.  One of the trials of the Molly Maguires took place in Jim Thorpe.  The Molly MaGuires were a secret organization of Irish men who banded together for protection during the conflicts the miners had with mine bosses during those days.  In the late 1800s, labor unions were on the rise because the workers needed to improve working conditions–12-hr workdays, child labor, fires, etc.  The mine bosses would use mine police and private security forces, such as the Pinkertons, to control strikes and the overall population, and the miners would counter with their secret organizations.  Anyway, there was a whole lot of violence in those days.  The MaGuires would probably be considered terrorists in today’s terminology, since they were a little on the rough side, handing out coffin notices and such.

Anyway, they were infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective, and several of them were eventually brought to trial for murder.  Four were hung near the old prison in Jim Thorpe, which still stands.  One of the executed man’s hand prints is reputedly still on the wall of the prison there, in some way proving his innocence.  There is a Sean Connery movie about them, called the Molly Maguires–it’s worth seeing if you are into this kind of stuff.

Anyway, we ate lunch at Flow, which is located in the Carbon County Cultural Project.  Lunch was good, we had a pizza appetizer, and I had a veggie burger and some coffee.  The waitress was very nice as she explained all she knew about the shocking truth that Jim Thorpe never lived here.  The Stabin Morykin Gallery adjoins the restaurant. The building is an old wire mill, which later became a silk mill and dressmaker’s factory.

There are a few B&Bs and hotels in town and other interesting restaurants.  This town is very picturesque, running along a mountain ridge on one side and a stream on the other.  One other cool fact about the town is that they have a gravity railroad, which served as the model for the first roller coaster.

We would definitely like to offer them smallwander membership.  There are several other nearby towns that are worth visiting as well.  Stay tuned as we explore this region further.

At one time, Fredericksburg, Texas was the Lone Star State’s best kept secret; nowadays the town and its surrounding locales support over 5 million tourists a year.  Finding your way to Fredericksburg is easy, especially if you’re already in Texas.  You can ask practically anyone in any Texas town and they’ll smile before giving you some fairly precise directions to this Hill Country haven.

December is the best time to visit Fredericksburg, although any other time of the year is great as well.  Many cultural events, live music, and winery tours can be easily accessed from this beautiful little town.  The area is now number two only to the Napa Valley as far as wine destinations go.

Fredericksburg was one of the original German settlements in Texas, and English-speaking teachers were introduced to the public school system in the town after the turn of the twentieth century.  It is home to World War II veteran Admiral Chester Nimitz, and a museum dedicated to him is housed in the old Nimitz Hotel building.

The town is full of history and as the seat of Gillespie County, is home to archives and several museums dedicated to the cultures that helped make this town so great.  Known for its many houses of worship, people come from all over to see the “City of Steeples.”

Visitors to the town can find accommodations of varying degrees of comfort, from your standard hotels to guest ranches and bed and breakfasts.  Gorgeous views and fantastic restaurants, as well as breweries and antique shops attract many people as well.

People who love the outdoors will find no shortage of things to do as well.  Hiking, fishing, and even rock climbing at Enchanted Rock State Park can be added to the traveler’s agenda.

Certainly, Fredericksburg is no longer a secret, but certainly a place worth visiting whether you live in Texas or have to go out of your way to get there.  December is full of some great events for people of all ages and interests.

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This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of discount airfare. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

Art Walk in Hillsborough, NC

Smallwander.com is hosting it’s monthly teleconference this upcoming Monday, Nov 24, from 10 to 11 am.  The topic is “Do downtown promotions = dollars downtown?

I particularly would like to explore why Hillsborough NC’s recent “Ladies Night Out” promotion was successful.  On a rainy Thursday night, hordes of women descended on the town and bought like crazy in the shops.  If you have similar stories about how special events translate to dollars in the shops, please think about them beforehand and share them with us.

Panelists will include Amy Wilmoth, a freelance marketing consultant for small businesses in the Triangle area of North Carolina, Elizabeth Read, Executive Director of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, Eddie Ide, President of Newton Merchants, Inc. of Newton North Carolina, and Greta Lint, tourism consultant.

We will be inviting town representatives in our smallwander network.  People will be able to either call in via telephone or listen in over the web.  They can also type questions to us.

Lisa Sabin-Wilson

We have a new website design coming out.  So, what does that mean to you?  Well, the new design will enable our towns and travelers to enter their own stories directly from the website.  Smallwander staff will review the posts and approve them, keeping out the cranks.  This will allow us to get more good information about cool small towns up onto the site quicker.  So, there should be steadier stream of new towns added.  Plus, you’ll be getting more on-the-ground information from travelers and SW staff in addition to the party-line info from the smallwander PR machine.

Our site is being redesigned by Lisa Sabin-Wilson of E. Webscapes Design, and author of Wordpress for Dummies.  We have known we wanted to go to a more interactive, user-generated website for about a year, but it’s taken about that long to research what system to use, decide who would design it, and build the new site.  After deciding on going with a Wordpress platform, I was extremely thrilled to get Lisa on board, who literally wrote the book on designing Wordpress sites.  She has been great to work with, and we look forward to some great new functionality with the WP platform.  We thank Interactive Communications, Inc. for our current website, which did exactly what wanted during this intermediary year.

So, get ready to start sending us your stories, photos, and videos of the small, historic towns that you love.  Your fellow travelers want to hear about what you have to say.  Plus, we’ll be meeting with our towns to encourage them to provide more of the same.

Flip video camera

Did you know you can stream live video over the web for free these days?

Did you know you can, in fact, stream live video from your phone?

Did you know a Wall Street Journal blogger posts videos captured from a $200 camcorder?  (And the price has dropped significantly since then.)

These are just a few of the things I learned at this year’s Converge South conference.

Call in on Monday morning (Oct 27) at 10 am to participate in a conversation about some of the new tools that are using to build communities on the web and beyond.  Hear more about Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and other social media.

I’ve invited a few bloggers and techies who I met at the conference, including Wayne Sutton and Ginny Skalski at 30threads.  These folks are experts at creating news and information networks.  They administer the mync.com site.

Robert Scoble, a world-reknowned tech and social media geek, was at the conference to show us how he is using video to get the message across these days.  Although Robert won’t be on the call, we’ll be passing on a lot of what he shared with us.

By Jayson Delisle

Midweek in early October, we drove slowly into the historic district of Smithfield, Virginia after a day spent traveling the quiet backroads from North Carolina.  The cotton fields, brightening the edge of the two lane road, diminished just outside of town.  Main Street ends at Wharf Hill’s overlook of the green marshland where the Pagan River, slides to the James, and, beyond, the Chesapeake; the Atlantic.  This was a river town in a time when the roads were rivers and rivers meant prosperity.  Prosperity remains in Smithfield thanks to the Southern breakfast staples of salt-cured and wood-smoked Virginia Ham.  You can’t miss it here.

We parked on Main Street in historic downtown, as the gray clouds and scattered showers packed up for the weekend.  Heather put on her walking shoes while I quickly ducked into the well-stocked visitor’s center to gain my bearings.  OK.  We are in “Isle of Wight” County.  Think England, think colonies.  In America, towns don’t get much more historic.  Remember now, the neighbors are Jamestown and Williamsburg.  So what separates Smithfield from these regal relics?  As a local shop owner casually confided, “…the Williamsburg locals come here to get away from the crowds and the commercialism.”  Heather and I glanced briefly at each other because, in full disclosure, 1) we were headed to Williamsburg and 2) we obviously have an affinity and appreciation for small gateway towns.  During our short stay in Smithfield, we held on to the shop keeper’s comments as we took our time exploring by foot.

Boutiques of many sorts and sizes lined the pedestrian friendly thoroughfare.  Grand Victorian homes now housed quaint and colorful shops selling eclectic apparel and playful pet products.  We toured art galleries and open studios and chatted with the creative folks.  Photo opportunities abounded.  A large, bronzed Benjamin Franklin sat on a bench reading his paper.  Another bench-bound sculpture down the block was of an elderly valentine couple.  “Sit and stay awhile” they implied.  The Ice Cream Parlor and lunch counter hummed with late afternoon activity.

A helpful shop owner offered some recent history regarding a bout of storms that left the beloved Isle of Wight Museum wet and worn.  The town was now anxiously anticipating its grand reopening.  It is comforting to hear the townspeople cherishing their history and their renewal.  The sun was coming out.

As our planned time elapsed, and our curiosity yet remained, we decided we would return through Smithfield, to have a meal (and ice cream!) and visit the historic Ivy Hill Cemetery on our way back from Williamsburg.  You have to wander these old towns to experience their charm and learn from their locals.  As we headed out, towards the free vehicle ferry across the river, we slowed near the immense ham processing plant.  Shifts were changing and the lifeblood of the town was coming and going.  I’ll think of these people and this old river town next time I’m enjoying my morning ham biscuit.  And next time we’ll bring the canoe.

Last year, travel consultant Greta Lint tuned me in to an event that took smallwander.com in a new direction.  I was going to say it changed my life, but I’m not that dramatic.

Converge South is a free conference about using the ever-emerging technologies of the web to communicate with your fellow beings.  Once known simply as a blogging conference, it has grown to include sessions on shooting video for online publication, creating podcasts, increasing online traffic, and the like.

The conference takes place in Greensboro, NC once a year.  This year’s is happening this week, on Thursday and Friday, October 16 and 17.

At last year’s conference, I was a new web entrepreneur who had not entered into the universe of blogging.  After attending the sessions and meeting with friendly participants, I happily hopped on the boat and began learning the vocabulary.   The following definitions are abridged from Wikipedia:

Blog: A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.  (You are reading a blog right now.)

Podcast: A podcast is a series of digital-media files, which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication.  An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.

Social media: Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Social networking: A social network service uses software to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

Search Engine: Search engines provide an interface to a group of items that enables users to specify criteria about an item of interest and have the engine find the matching items.

Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords.

Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.

Wiki: A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

With these new “social media” web tools, smallwander.com is better able to collaborate with both town representatives and travelers.  We are better able to share information and learn from each other instead of relying on the staid, brochure-like world that existed previously on the web.

A couple months after last year’s conference, I had our two smallwander blogs up-and-running, Small Towns, which has information to help historic and charming towns to promote themselves, and Smallwanderer, a blog for travelers who are looking for authentic small town experiences.  In fact, our main website is also evolving into a more blog-oriented platform.  We’ll have an announcement on our new web design shortly.

I also learned a little bit about podcasting at the conference, and we launched our first podcast also in May.

If you are in driving distance to Greensboro, NC, I strongly encourage you to attend.