DOWNTOWN DELAND · THE WORK BEYOND ONE DOORWAY
MainStreet DeLand: The Shared Care Behind a Downtown With Character
A restored theatre, a downtown gift currency and an ice cream walk might seem like separate ideas. MainStreet DeLand helps connect them. Each gives people a different reason to participate in the same place, while allowing the individual businesses and institutions to retain their character.
By Robert Urban · PaperBoat Media
A commitment that began in 1985
DeLand was among Florida’s first five designated Main Street communities in 1985. The association’s history records the Great American Main Street Award in 1997 and the America’s Main Streets contest win in 2017.
The awards are pleasing, but the years are what interest me. They describe an effort sustained across different businesses, different volunteers and different stages of the city’s life. A downtown needs people willing to keep caring after one successful occasion has passed.
Historic character and current use have to meet repeatedly. A building gives the street continuity; the people inside give someone a reason to open its door.
The theatre made the commitment visible
The Athens Theatre’s restoration history records MainStreet DeLand’s involvement beginning in 1993 and its purchase of the building in 1994. That is a substantial example of looking beyond the next event toward what the district could continue to become.
A theatre contributes an evening’s destination, a place for talent and an architectural presence. Restoring one requires people to believe in those possibilities while the building still needs work.
The Athens story gives that patience its own full chapter. Within MainStreet’s wider history, it shows how downtown stewardship can acquire a very concrete form.
A small gift can travel through the district
MainStreet Bucks offer another, more everyday expression of cooperation: gift currency accepted by participating downtown shops and restaurants. The idea allows a giver to support local businesses while leaving the recipient room to choose.
That small mechanism expresses something I like about DeLand. The downtown is a collection of independent interests, and their differences make the whole more appealing. A person can discover a place that suits them without every business needing to promise the same experience.
The association’s merchant resources and wayfinding work address another part of that relationship. Shared information makes the district easier to understand and participate in.
An event can begin a longer attachment
The Ice Cream Walk introduces people to storefronts through an easy shared pleasure. The Craft Beer Festival brings another community of interest into downtown. The events have different characters, but both create encounters among people and local places.
The lasting value may be a return visit. Someone notices a shop, remembers a conversation or discovers a reason to come back with another person. An event can become the first chapter in a more ordinary attachment to the town.
That is the work I appreciate around MainStreet DeLand: creating occasions and practical connections through which people can make downtown part of their own lives.
DeLand’s character belongs to many hands. MainStreet’s contribution is the continuing work that helps those individual efforts become a place people recognize, enjoy and choose to support together.
Questions about this place
When did DeLand become a Florida Main Street community?
DeLand was among the first five Florida communities to receive Main Street designation in 1985.
How did MainStreet DeLand help Athens Theatre?
The theatre’s history records MainStreet’s restoration involvement beginning in 1993 and its acquisition of the building in 1994. That work became part of the theatre’s longer restoration story.
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