“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” These words, once merely the opening sentiment of a classic work of literature now ring true for Tangipahoa’s two premier main street districts located at the heart of Hammond and Ponchatoula’s historic downtown locale.
Both Hammond and Ponchatoula are part of the state Main Street program that has sought to revitalize the downtown districts of many cities statewide for the past 25 years, State Main Street Director Ray Scriber said. In his estimation both downtowns are making successful strides in achieving their goals.
“They’re both doing great jobs,” Scriber said. “Main Street is a volunteer driven program and both Hammond and Ponchatoula have good organizations in place, and you can tell by the look of their downtowns that they are successful because both of their downtowns are very nice and destinations that people want to go to.”
Both Hammond and Ponchatoula have reportedly been following the same four-point approach in their revitalization efforts. Those points include; design, organization, promotion and economic restructuring.
While both cities do employ the same system, Scriber points to one of the strengths of the Main Street program as allowing each district to develop in its individual way.
“Each local community can tailor the approach to meet their specific needs,” he said. This aspect of the program is evident in the different and divergent paths that both downtowns have taken in their quests for revitalization.
An example of this can be found in Southeastern Louisiana University. Scriber said that one of the strategies Hammond has in the works is in the promotion of the city’s downtown district to the vast number of college students living only blocks away.
“They’re exploring ways that they can capture more of that market and get the university students to shop downtown, spend time downtown and experience the downtown of Hammond,” he said. This quite obviously is a different strategy in form and implementation then anything that Ponchatoula is working on.
Hammond Downtown Development Director Terry Lynn Smith said that one of the programs they are instituting is going to be a shuttle from the university to the downtown district.
“It’s a brand new program that we’ve just got an inkling of how it’s going to work,” Smith said. “Whether this be a Saturday afternoon or during the week we don’t know. We hope to have a shuttle coming from Southeastern to downtown for shopping, dining and for events that go on downtown.”
Smith feels like this service would open up a vital front and help the city to introduce Southeastern students to downtown that may not be able to make it there on their own. In addition she believes that it would inevitably broaden the merchant market in the area as well.
“Our merchants would be able to prepare merchandise for their age group, their interests and their needs,” she said. “So it’s a win win.”
Whereas Hammond is reaching out to the college crowd, Ponchatoula is continuing with its tried and true marketing toward antique lovers, Ponchatoula Downtown Development Director Charlene Daniels said.
“Our Main Street Program would protect the integrity of the historic buildings, but as far as trying to direct it one way or another… it’s got its own life,” Daniels said.
That life has been one of antique marketing for the past 20 years and has brought a drastic revitalization to the city. However, with the amount of foot traffic that the antique marketing has brought to the city it is also fostering the addition of some other businesses.
“The economy… I don’t think has really hit the downtown as bad as its hit other places,” she said. “People still need furniture and if they want antiques they’re going to come here.”
Daniels echoed other sentiments that believe that Louisiana has been insulated from the worst of the economic downturn the country finds itself in.
This success in marketing, which has continued to keep Ponchatoula in good economic standing with the surrounding areas, is something that is totally credited to the leadership of the city.
The state Main Street program is reportedly more geared toward helping to implement the projects associated with each city’s development plan.
“We help with the development of a work plan, which is more short term, to help get step by step through the process and help them reach the goals that they want to,” Scriber said. However there are long-term plans discussed among the entities as well.
In the short term at least, Scriber calls attention to the importance of the program, particularly in the midst of perilous economic times.
“A good Main Street organization is more vital now then ever because this is the way that a community can help the downtown businesses weather the storm as best as possible,” he said. All the state downtown districts are suffering because of the current economic crisis, but the organizations aspirations are as strong as ever.
More specifically Louisiana Main Street works with the individual Downtown Development offices with training, technical support, building and interior design consultants, organizational issues, marketing and economic restructuring personnel.
This comprehensive assistance has certainly been an aid to both Hammond and Ponchatoula and has served in a supporting role to place their downtown recoveries and revitalizations on the right track.
Daniels said that when the decision was made to set a course for the Ponchatoula downtown to take on an antique theme, the state Main Street program did provide valuable assistance.
“All the stores were vacant,” she said of the condition of downtown in 1989 before the antique campaign began. “The property owners sought antique dealers to come in for multiple reasons,
“It gave us one cleft of people to look for, the buildings were not in the greatest of shape so they could be rented at lesser rental rates and they would not have to go in and do a tremendous amount of improvements on them because the furniture fit better in the buildings as they were.”
Despite the successes that Ponchatoula’s downtown development and Main Street program can claim, they still feel that they have much to do in the area of revitalization.
“Someone is constantly doing something,” she said. “We have a building that is working on the façade grant now.”
That façade grant, which is awarded to cities based on the state’s assessment of need and worth, is being used to renovate the outside of the Three Sisters Boutique in the 200 block of West Pine Street.
This type of progress and the ability of the downtown merchants to work together are two of the strengths that Daniels seems to think help contribute to the vitality and popularity of Ponchatoula’s main street area.
“They have something almost every month,” she said. “They are constantly working on another reason for people to come downtown to have fun. I think that is the reason it stays alive.”
Smith also commented on one of the façade grants that Hammond has in the works regarding the Hammond Library. This grant has provided the library with $5,000 to do, what Smith considers, some much needed renovation.
“It’s a wonderful undertaking,” she said. “The Hammond Library has served its purpose well, but to keep up with the way things are looking downtown as far as looking good and welcoming, they knew that they needed a new façade.”
Smith also expressed her sincere appreciation for those in the Louisiana Main Street Program who provide assistance to all of the Main Street districts throughout the state and credited them with great influence in Hammond’s efforts to revitalize its downtown.
“In the last 10 years the direction for the historic district and the downtown development district has been a complete turnaround with regard to the revitalization of the buildings that face Thomas Street,” she said. “The buildings have been brought back to their original look.”
In continuing forward toward revitalization, Smith says the downtown district is going to be keeping their eyes on areas that “look a little shabby.” An example of such an area is in the Morrison Park on North Cypress Street.
“We decided to bring it to the look of a park,” she said. “We’re planting beautiful landscape; we’re going to have benches there, a trash receptacle, and a beautiful sign indicating the gift and who has helped revitalize that plot of ground.”
It is projects like this that Smith points to that help the city in its quest for new businesses to keep the revitalization efforts on track. One of the major elements to this success, she says, is in the area of planning.
Through good planning and advertisement Smith feels as though the Hammond downtown will continue to thrive in the midst of the economic downturn.
“Economic troubles don’t seem to translate to what we consider revitalization,” she said. “We think that might mean that there is going to be an empty building for a short period of time. We still have folks interested in coming into our area, so that must mean that economically they think they will make money.”
Smith said that the latest influx of business into the downtown area was in the form of two restaurants, one on Thomas Street and one on Cypress Street.
While there is still limited information on the two businesses, she did say that one of them would be a new pizza and pasta restaurant, she was unsure about the other.
However, even with the great strides that Hammond is making in its goals there are still some challenges that Smith would like to be able to overcome.
“We have some buildings that we need to look at and determine where it fits in our merchandise situation,” she said. “We need to find out why it hasn’t been revitalized. We have some buildings that would be perfect for different concepts. We have to match the investor to these buildings and that’s a big job.”
Both Daniels and Smith agree that Ponchatoula and Hammond respectively are on the right track with regard to the revitalization process and the help from the state Main Street program.
These downtown directors both indicate that even in the worst of times economically on a national scale, through hard work and determination, these two cities can still find the best of times here at home for now and the future.
