BRENHAM -- Years ago, the main corridors in downtown were lined with vacant buildings that had fallen into disrepair.
Now tourists -- some fresh from touring the Blue Bell Creamery -- have a wide choice of restaurants, boutiques, antique shops and specialty stores to peruse. The area that once boasted only the typical downtown mainstays -- a long-time furniture store, two jewelry shops and a handful of antique and gift stores -- now also has a bookstore, pet accessory shop, a sprawling health food and fitness center and more.
With Brenham's down-home vibe and centralized location, the heart of the city now manages to attract thousands of visitors each year.
But downtown activists say getting there was a long, slow process.
Jennifer Eckermann, community development manager of Main Street Brenham, said that process began almost 10 years ago when the city reinstated its membership with the Texas Main Street Program.
The program, part of the Texas Historical Commission's Community Heritage Development Division, provides support for cities trying to breathe new life into often neglected downtown areas. Main Street designation also helps cities, which pay an annual membership fee, to garner grant funds.
State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, then president of both the Washington Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation, said she worked with scores of volunteers and interested parties.
"We started a downtown revitalization task force that looked at occupancy rates and the fall in appraisals that had happened over an 11-year period," she said. "Downtown was headed in the wrong direction."
Only about 60 percent of the downtown area's buildings were occupied at the time, Kolkhorst said.
Eckermann said the revitalization took a large consensus building effort, among members of the community. Kolkhorst and other advocates, including the late Tom Bullock -- brother to former Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock -- local residents Susan Cantey, Charles Moser and many others worked to win support from local residents.
As efforts were just getting under way around 1995, Teresa Beckers and her sister and business partner Gretchen Jones arrived on the scene, having recently moved from Houston. The pair, who founded Unity Theatre, rehabbed the former Brenham National Bank lobby at 100 South Park Street.
The undertaking, which cost the sisters more than $100,000 over several phases, served as the impetus for further investment in the burgeoning district.
"I was completely charmed by this town, as everyone seems to be," Beckers said. "And I had always wanted to create a theater. I didn't understand why there wasn't one here already."
The professional theatre, though still in operation, has since moved just off the square and into the city's historic warehouse district. The district is located south of the square, immediately adjacent to downtown. Beckers, who is now retired from the theatre, leased space on Park Street in December and opened a new specialty shop on the square, the pet apparel and accessory store Shaggy Chic.
Kolkhorst said Unity Theatre and the city's very public plans to commit funds to downtown revitalization prompted the increase in activity that followed. Meanwhile, Eckermann, then a Blue Bell employee, took charge of the city's Main Street program.
In 1999 the city put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a multi-phased streetscape project, adding curb extensions, trees, plants, benches, trash receptacles and enhancing the look of eight intersections. Five years later the city also added public restrooms and converted an alleyway into a pedestrian walkway. Both projects, which the city completed with the help of grant funds, cost an estimated $2.25 million, Eckermann said.
Main Street also instated a slate of incentive programs for developers, eyeing the central business district for investment and renovation purposes.
Redeveloping downtown
John Hermann, owner of the district's oldest tenant, Hermann's Furniture, said the district's transformation from years past has been astounding. The changes, he said, also upped the ante for the furniture store, which has operated from its original location at 213 W. Alamo Street since 1876.
"A good while back, we were just a normal furniture store," Hermann said. "Now we've evolved into something else. We now do custom work, interior design, drapery and upholstery, as well as host free design seminars."
Eckermann said the area's revitalization took such reinvestment from existing tenants, as well as many others who found their way to the city's center after efforts began.
Ted Dinkins, an attorney who started acquiring property in Washington County in the late 1970s, undertook renovations on the city's former Farmers National Bank Building on South Baylor Street in 2000.
"Tourist traffic seemed to be increasing substantially at that time," Dinkins said. "And Washington County was becoming a magnet for people moving out of Houston."
Dinkins leased the building to Maryanne Flandery, a retail designer with roots in Houston and California who opened upscale Euro-country design shop Beadboard UpCountry, and to Dinkins' daughter and son-in-law Tom and Ann Briggs, owners of Ernie's bistro.
By the time Flandery opened Beadboard UpCountry a year and a half ago, the store owner said the downtown area already had an appealing mix of tenants and a steady base of tourist traffic.
"We liked it out here and absolutely loved this space," Flandery said. "It looked like you could do design things in here."
The store now boasts handmade headboards, chairs, slipcovers, imported soaps and candles and other items, catering to everyone from out-of-town designers to a tourist needing just to reupholster a single chair.
Ken Parker, a longtime Brenham resident, recently renovated the building that houses the Brenham Fine Arts League, located at 113 W. Alamo Street. His wife Sarah plans to open an arts center on the second floor; Parker is building apartments on the third floor.
"The dirt floors in some of the areas had to be reconcreted," Parker said. "We also redid the tile and put in an elevator. We redid everything except the retail shops, which were already finished."
Sarah Parker, who worked for the Brenham league, wanted to remain in the downtown area, Ken Parker said.
The owners of Seek & Find, Lamplighter and the Texas Store -- three long-time downtown businesses located on Alamo Street -- have also watched downtown redevelop around them.
"It's been incredible," said Janet Fisher, owner, "with the addition of the park, public restroom and plants. People are coming here from the region and all over the world for either an enjoyable weekend or a day trip."
Seek & Find is one of nearly 10 antique shops that have located downtown, Lamplighter deals in American shades and other home decor and the Texas store offers cowboy, cowgirl, western and rustic themed items, according to its Web site.
Jon and Wendi Mostyn arrived in Brenham long after revitalization efforts began, adding onto the existing Brenham Health Food store last year. The store, housed in a log cabin on Main Street, now boasts a cafe and expanded exercise area where local instructors teach pilates and yoga classes. Wendi said she moved to the area from Kingsville, Texas, about a year ago to acquire the store.
"This store had faithful customers before we arrived," she said. "Luckily they are still faithful customers."
While many of the store's visitors are local residents, Mostyn said, tourists also stumble across the health food store from time to time.
Attracting day-trippers
The changes downtown now attract flurries of out-of-town visitors, particularly on the weekend and during major events and festivals, Eckermann said.
The upcoming Country Flavors Festival on Saturday is expected to draw thousands, with opportunities to taste more than 30 flavors of Blue Bell ice cream, stroll downtown, participate in a cake bake-off, see western re-enactors or just play. Main Street Brenham uses funds raised from the festival to generate revenue for further improvements.
Downtown is also home to the city's free summer concert series, "Hot Nights, Cool Tunes" and a Christmas event.
Otherwise, the area also gets a steady trickle of local and out-of-town visitors during the week.
Myranda Mallory of Brenham, a self-proclaimed Shaggy Chic devotee, said she is often in the store buying treats and clothes for her Pomeranian mix. She said she also regularly brings her dog to the store's Yappy Hour, a social event where the store provides human refreshments and attendees take a stroll around downtown with their pets.
Byron and Brenda Comer of Spring Branch, a community near San Antonio, were in downtown on a recent Thursday afternoon looking at antiques.
"We just got here by way of Round Top," Byron Comer said. "We're going antiquing and plan to eat dinner. We haven't gotten around much yet, but it looks pretty cool."
Joelle Dupuis and Claire Bardwell, two European ex-pats from the Houston area, traveled downtown the same day after spending several hours at the Blue Bell creamery. The pair quipped that they were attracted to the area by the prospect of ice cream and a day of shopping.
Moving forward
Kolkhorst and others said the city's central business district has more on the way.
A nonprofit group called Save Our Simon currently is raising funds to restore the Simon Theatre, a popular venue for theatrical performances, vaudeville acts, ballroom dances and other events built in the 1920s.
The organization plans to convert the theatre, located at 109 W. Main Street, into a multi-use conference center and event facility.
Meanwhile Main Street is also trying to convert a donated lot at 208 S. Park Street into a downtown pocket park. The lot features a filled-in cistern, one of more than 30 cisterns local residents built in the late 1800s and early 1900s to fight fires.
The cisterns, according to an archaeologist with the Texas Historical Commission, showed that Brenham was a progressive city, where building owners worked together to enable the city to have reduced fire insurance rates.
Today, the central business district has only three vacancies, Eckermann said, compared to two to three times as many when the city started in the Main Street program for the second time, since the early 1980s.
• Holli L. Estridge's e-mail address is holli.estridge@theeagle.com.
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