Indiana's Hot Small Town
December 7, 1997
The cover article of TIME magazine issue published on December 8, 1998, entitled "The Great Escape: Americans are fleeing suburbia for small towns. Do their new lives equal their dreams?" included A Small-Town Sampler of ten small towns in America that have revived themselves through the Main Street Program of The National Main Street Program. Nappanee, Indiana, is profiled along with Randolph, Vermont; Lexington, Virginia; Danville, Kentucky; Pontiac, Illinois; Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; Hannibal, Missouri; Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Georgetown, Texas and Grass Valley, California.
TIME said that Nappanee "built its comeback on tourism--visitors drawn to the culture of the area's 2,500-member Amish community. The Depot Plaza, where Amish shoppers park their horses and buggies, is a downtown meeting place and festival site."
Richard Pletcher, president of Amish Acres, serves as president of Nappanee Main & Market Streets, the Indiana Main Street program, that was chosen to participate in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Three Year Tourism Initiative, one of only sixteen Pilot Areas in the country.
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