What Rocky Mount Can Learn From: Jane Jacobs and Richard Moe

On the 100 block of SW Main Street, the past lingers in brick and shadow. An old photograph holds the memory of that block—when storefronts welcomed customers with a handshake and a smile. That image reminds us: buildings don’t preserve themselves. People do.

Two such people are Jane Jacobs and Richard Moe—preservationists who changed the way we think about cities and history.

Jane Jacobs wasn’t an architect. She was a writer, mother, and community activist. But in 1961, her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities gave voice to a radical idea: that old neighborhoods, with their messiness and history, mattered more than the grand plans of city engineers. She fought to save New York’s Greenwich Village and won. Her lesson? Preservation isn’t nostalgia—it’s wisdom.

Richard Moe came from another angle. As president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, he championed the idea that preservation was not just about beautiful homes, but also about economic growth and social equity. He believed in adaptive reuse—the idea that old buildings can serve new purposes without losing their soul. He helped save the American landscape, one block at a time.

Jacobs gave us vision. Moe gave us strategy. Rocky Mount needs both.Our Main Street revival echoes their legacy: we save what’s good, and we make it useful again. Whether it’s restoring a façade or reimagining a bank building as a coffeehouse, the work honors Jacobs’s belief in community character and Moe’s conviction that history can house the future.

As we look to the 100 block of SW Main Street and beyond, let’s remember that the best preservationists didn’t just save buildings—they helped cities find themselves again. So can we.