The Heart and Soul of Main Street Canada

François LeBlanc, conservation architect

One-fifth of Canada's population live in communities of twenty-five thousand people or fewer, and more than one third in places under fifty thousand. For most of these people, Main Street is the physical, commercial, and social hub of their town. There lies its heart and soul.

Especially during the 19th and 20th centuries, small town Canada developed or was planned around a street that most of them named Main Street. This is where the shops, the restaurants, the hotels, as well as the important public buildings such as the post office and the town hall were built. In Eastern Canada, this is also where one often finds the church, located in one of the most prominent places of downtown.

"The traditional use of the street as a social space, a meeting ground, defined the importance of Main Street. In many places Main Street served the whole community on Dominion Day, the first of July. In Anglo-Canada, until the last decade or so, Orangemen would march on 12 July under a banner strung across Main Street proclaiming 'In God We Trust'. In Quebec and Acadia, rue principale was the parade route during the Fête de Pâques. In countless mining towns the march along Main Street to the union hall or the picnic ground celebrated the first of May. Clearly, then, Main Street was a place to witness and be witnessed. As a result, in many communities Remembrance Day parades naturally seek out Main Street, and the various war memorials erected through the last century have a location on or very near Main Street. Similarly, funeral processions often enter into the tradition of public witness by choosing a Main Street route. But always, beyond its memorial function, the street has continued to play a dynamic role. Parades for Santa Claus, St Patrick, pioneer days, and the like find a natural stage along the sidewalks on Main Street. And during election campaigns, here is a natural place to go 'mainstreeting.'

Photo: A Canadian small town in Newfoundland

Yet, following the end of the Second World War, Canada's small town downtown and especially their Main Street began to deteriorate. Downtown's troubles date to the late 1940s when Canadian communities suffered a nationwide building shortage. The shortage was caused in part by a two-decade-long construction slow-down (in the '30s, the Depression all but halted the building industry and in the early '40s resources were directed to the war effort). The shortage was exacerbated in the late '40s by a burgeoning population: the start of the baby boom and the arrival of three million immigrants from war torn Europe.

To encourage building, the federal government joined forces with the construction industry and undertook the single most ambitious development program in the nation's history. The result was the suburbs. And soon, the suburbs created their own shopping venues, the malls and shopping strips. The new housing tracts provided first time homes for millions of Canadians but there was a downside, as well. The suburbs drew population away from the established neighbourhoods and the malls and strips attracted 50% of the retail dollar. Over the years, this competition devastated downtowns. Sales plummeted. Vacancies rose. There was unemployment, buildings became dilapidated, spirits flagged.

Photo: A typical Main Street in the province of Quebec

Various initiatives were undertaken to revitalize the traditional hearts of our communities, notably the urban renewal efforts of the 1960s and the beautification schemes of the '70s. For the most part, these efforts failed. In 1979, Heritage Canada launched a program called Main Street Canada and developed it on the premise that downtowns are complex entities: to prosper they must develop both economically and environmentally. The program's strategy was based loosely upon the approach the rival shopping centres used: open an office in the heart of the shopping district; install a coordinator who lives and works in the community; operate a program based on the four-point approach of organization, design improvement, economic development, and marketing. There were important ways in which the program differed from the shopping centres: its approach was incremental, emphasized widespread local participation, developed local resources, and promoted the local communal identity.

Photo: Main Street is the heart and soul of Canada's small towns

The Main Street Canada strategy was implemented in more than 100 communities. Their successes in revitalizing their downtown and their Main Street both physically and economically and rekindling the population's pride are told in numerous publications, newspapers, magazines and television programs. Here are two examples:

• CARBONEAR. During the early 1980s, Carbonear was in trouble. The picturesque out port on Newfoundland's Conception Bay had an unemployment rate that, thanks to the closing of a nearby fishery, nudged 40%. The downtown was devastated: almost half its buildings were vacant. Then Carbonear (pop. 5,000) invited Heritage Canada's Main Street program to town. A Main Street office was established on Water Street and a coordinator, Jerry Dick, was hired. A market survey identified new investment opportunities. A tax incentive encouraged new businesses to locate in the core. A community market and artisans' incubator were launched. Tourism was emphasized. Promotions such as the annual Stationers Festival were linked to local traditions. In just over two years there was a net increase of nine new businesses. The vacancy rate was reduced by 17%. Thirty jobs were created through business starts. About 4,000 people attended local festivals. Ten major building renovations were undertaken, representing a quarter million investments -- a sum that matched the previous 10-year financial input.

• LADYSMITH. This Vancouver Island community (pop. 4,400) was also in trouble in the mid-1980s. Its main source of employment was a lumber company that closed thanks to the early '80s recession. To make matters worse, half of the town's retail dollars were being attracted away by shopping malls in nearby Nanaimo. In the mid-'80s, Ladysmith adopted the Main Street approach. In addition, the town tapped private and public funding sources including the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs' Downtown Revitalization Program and the Heritage Area Revitalization Program of the Ministry of Tourism, Recreation and Culture. An office was opened and Elizabeth Low was named coordinator. As elsewhere, the Main Street approach here emphasized the development of local heritage resources, the collaborative management of the downtown, and aggressive marketing. The Downtown Merchants Association was established in 1986 to promote and market downtown. Emphasis was placed on regaining local retail dollars and on attracting tourists. The most visible change in Ladysmith is the face-lift on First Avenue: a new civic square was created; a streetscape plan was implemented; and renovations by owners were carried out on a large percentage of downtown buildings. The physical renaissance reflected a business rebirth. Since the beginning of revitalization, vacancies have been reduced to nil, 21 shops were opened, and most owners of established stores reported an upswing in business some as much as 20% in one year.

Photo: Restored buildings on Main Street in Nelson, B.C.

Pierre Burton, a famous Canadian author and media person summarizes very well the spirit of place of Canadian small towns: "Main Street is the glory of Canada. If a community has no heart, it has no soul; and its heart should beat faster at the core. For here is the glory of the past, the symbol of stability, the structures that our fathers and their fathers erected, the visual reminder of another time that gives every small town a sense of continuity."