The Town of Tryon’s Ransom Morris Project has won top honors in the category of Promotion, receiving N.C. Commerce’s Small Town Main Street Award of Merit.

The N.C. Small Town Main Street Awards competition recognizes the outstanding achievements of participating communities in organization, design, economic restructuring and promotion, the four key areas of the downtown revitalization program’s emphasis, for which only one award per year is given in each category. Entries were judged by a panel that included N.C. Main Street Center staff and Main Street managers.
Following the judging, N.C. Commerce’s Office of Urban Development Director Liz Parham remarked, “North Carolina Main Street and Small Town Main Street Awards represent some of the very best revitalization work taking place in our state. Whether it’s a streetscape project that makes the central business district more walkable and  attractive, a building rehabilitation that provides space for exciting new businesses, a special event that builds on the heritage of the community, or one of many other exemplary projects that contributes to the vitality of Main Street downtowns, these award-winners are outstanding examples of partnerships, innovation, quality, and sustainability and serve as models for other small towns and cities throughout North Carolina.”
Parham and Assistant Secretary of N.C. Commerce Dr. Pat Mitchell presented the Small Town Main Street Awards during the North Carolina Main Street Annual Conference in New Bern on Tuesday, April 1. Crys Armbrust accepted the award on behalf of the Town of Tryon, the Ransom Morris Project and the many citizens who generously participated in the project.
Tryon’s revitalization efforts have been recognized by the N.C. Department of Commerce for two consecutive years, having received the Economic Restructuring Award of Merit last year for the 1906 Tryon Depot renovation.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation created the Main Street program, which uses a downtown revitalization strategy for smaller towns based on economic revitalization within the context of historic preservation. North Carolina was selected as an original Main Street state in 1980, and in 2003 the Office of Urban Development established the N.C. Small Town Main Street program. Since its inception, N.C. Small Town Main Street has selected 50 communities from across the state to participate in the program.
The Small Town Main Street program focuses on the growing number of small, rural towns that need downtown development assistance but are not likely, due to size or resource limitations, to pursue the regular Main Street program. Selected communities receive on-site technical assistance from the Small Town Main Street staff in areas including organizational development, market analysis, business assistance, promotions and design.

– article submitted
by Dr. Crys Armbrust