National Trust for Historic Preservation given double credit for Nappanee's recognition in TIME magazine
December 8, 1997
NAPPANEE, Indiana – The December 8, 1997, issue of TIME magazine recognized Nappanee as one of ten towns that has made good use of its past. In "A Small-town Sampler" attached to the cover article, "The Great Escape: Americans are fleeing suburbia for small towns. Do their new lives equal their Dreams?" Nappanee is credited with building its comeback on tourism with visitors drawn to the culture of the area’s 2,500-member Amish community. The Depot Plaza project was singled out to represent the revitalization of Nappanee, a prerequisite for drawing suburbanites to live in small towns.
Richard Pletcher, President of Nappanee Main & Market Streets, Inc., a private not-for-profit group, whose lineage is traced to 44 downtown merchants who pledged $11,500 in 1947. The Nappanee Development Corporation was created to lead Nappanee in its recovery from World War II. The development group built the first new house for speculation following the war, brought Blue Bell Industries to Nappanee as an occupant of the former Freese Creamery for over twenty years, developed all of the off-street parking in the downtown area and assisted the city in development of the municipal airport and several industrial parks.
In 1989, the board of directors concluded that fundamental economic changes were happening at an increasing rate in Nappanee. Volunteer leadership had become a precious commodity as public utilities left small towns and local banks became branches of banking conglomerates, often headquartered out of state. Downtowns no longer fulfilled many of the roles for which they were designed. The group hired Larry Andrews, a former local banker and merchant to administer a plan for revitalization. The corporation, with the city council’s blessing, became an active member of the Indiana Main Street program, a branch of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. With help from similar programs in nearby communities including Warsaw and Elkhart, Nappanee Main & Market Streets began to plan strategically for the future of Nappanee’s Downtown. Through the facilitation of Historic Landmarks Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation founded by Eli Lilly, Indiana has more Mainstreet Programs than any other state.
At the same time the community was accepted into the Indiana Main Street Program, it was selected, through Nappanee Main & Market Streets, to participate in the National Trust’s three-year Heritage Tourism Initiative, one of sixteen pilot areas in four states. After the group successfully competed for an Amtrak stop on The Broadway Limited when it was moved to CSX Railroad tracks coming through Nappanee, and with the assistance of Frank Ryan, Community Development Director, Indiana Department of Commerce, attention was focused on acquiring and developing the old depot plaza into a downtown focal point for Nappanee. "The Gateway Project" was launched and numerous projects became part of the master plan for downtown revitalization.
NIPSCO donated its downtown building and former coal yard along the railroad to Nappanee Main & Market Streets, United Telephone also donated several parcels of adjacent land in the downtown area to the private group. A $500,000 low interest loan fund was coordinated among the city’s banks and a $500,000 Community Focus Fund Grant was awarded by the State of Indiana to Nappanee to carry out its plans. The city purchased the former depot lot from CSX Railroad. Arrangements were made with Amtrak and CSX to use the railroad’s 1910 depot, once again, as a passenger station.
Drawing the most attention was a cooperative effort among the city, state and local Amish community to develop a series of buggy sheds throughout the downtown to protect Amish driving horses from the elements while their owners were conducting business in the downtown. Perhaps the only meeting among local and state government officials with Amish bishops, held under gas lantern light in a one-room school, was held to discuss mutual concerns. From this and a second meeting came the design of the sheds and the cooperative effort to bring them to reality. Local industry donated materials and Amish carpenters raised the sheds.
Through the leadership of the Trust, Nappanee, alone among the sixteen pilot areas, combined the principles of Mainstreet revitalization with the use of heritage and cultural tourism as a revitalization tool without overwhelming the local residents and compromising the very cultural diversity that draws tourists in the first place. The Nappanee Public Library won the American Library Association’s coveted John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award for its "Waitin’ on the Train" campaign during this time of rejuvenation.
"Without the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s insight into the problems of balancing the past and the future, Nappanee would have tackled many of these problems piecemeal and given up the synergy created by moving many facets of the community toward common goals." Said Pletcher. This insight led the development group to successfully lobby for the creation of a sorely needed Redevelopment Commission within Nappanee City Government. Andrews became executive director of the commission, winning a second $500,000 Community Focus Fund Grant to develop infrastructure for Pleasant Acres, a new affordable housing development in Nappanee. "TIME Magazine has recognized that through efforts like Nappanee’s, The Trust is helping to prove that small towns can use heritage and cultural tourism as a revitalization tool without overwhelming the local residents and compromising the very cultural diversity that draws tourists in the first place." Pletcher concluded, "Most importantly, this recognition from TIME will validate Mayor Larry Thompson and the City Council’s recent efforts to join in additional public-private partnerships to keep Nappanee’s momentum moving to accept other challenges within the community and leverage new grant opportunities as they arise."
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