I live in Nashville, North Carolina, and when our Farmers Market first opened, I was curious. My daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter and I made a little adventure out of going to see what we could see. We wandered, we shopped, we enjoyed ourselves. I remember coming away pleased that Nashville had created this gathering place and glad that we had gone.
Since then, a lot has been happening around that Farmers Market.
The Nashville Junction, on the former Nashville Building Supply property on South Barnes Street, has continued to take shape. Restaurants have opened. There is pizza and Italian food, a coffee shop, retail and other small businesses. Music and community events have been added to the mix. What began in my mind as the place where we went to the Farmers Market has become something larger.
Because I write Mainstreetrockymount.com, most everything I see passes through that Rocky Mount filter.
I see an old building and wonder what it could become. I notice when people are walking somewhere instead of merely driving through. I pay attention when a restaurant gives people a reason to turn a corner, when an event puts people on a sidewalk, when someone has found a new use for an old place.
So when I recently caught up with what has been happening at Nashville Junction, I realized that the interesting thing isn’t simply that several new businesses have opened.
It is that they are gathering around a place where people already had a reason to come.
The Farmers Market was one reason.
Now there is coffee.
There is pizza.
There is a place to have lunch, a shop to wander into, music to hear, somebody you might run into.
One reason becomes several.
And somewhere in that progression is an idea about downtown revitalization. Not as a comparison. Certainly not as another version of, “Look what Nashville can do.”
What works in one place cannot simply be picked up and set down in another. But an idea can travel. The idea that interests me is wonderfully uncomplicated.
Give people a reason to come. Then give them a reason to stay. And finally, give them a reason to come back.
We spend a great deal of time talking about what downtown Rocky Mount needs. I have contributed my share of words to that conversation. We talk about investment and development, buildings and preservation, consultants and plans, leadership and money.
All important.
Underneath all those large subjects is a smaller, more human question.
What makes someone say, “Let’s go downtown Friday”?
And what happens when they get there?
Is there a reason to come back?
I think about that first trip to the Nashville Farmers Market. Four generations of us didn’t go there to participate in economic development. We weren’t thinking about revitalization or foot traffic or any of the language communities use when they are trying to bring places back to life.
We went because it sounded like fun.
We shopped.
We wandered.
We enjoyed being there.
We came because Nashville gave us a reason to come.
Now Nashville has added more reasons.
What little adventures are we creating in downtown Rocky Mount?
You Might Want to Know…
The Nashville Junction did not simply happen around the Farmers Market. It was planned as a public-private redevelopment of the former Nashville Building Supply property on South Barnes Street, bringing together space for restaurants and small businesses with the Farmers Market, community gathering space and future residential development. That makes what is happening there even more interesting to me.
If you haven’t been lately, perhaps you should make your own little adventure out of it.
Nashville Junction
723 South Barnes Street
Nashville, North Carolina
Nashville Farmers Market
725 South Barnes Street
Among the businesses now at Nashville Junction are Sawmill Pizza Co., Carlone Provisions, Packhouse Coffee Company, Kozy at Home Studio & Boutique, and The Art of Fade, along with other small businesses and services.
Main Street Rocky Mount 