Anatomy of a Main Street Building
This slideshow provides an introductory overview of the history of Main Street buildings, common architectural features, signage, and preservation guidelines. Published by Indiana Main Street.
Preserving African American Historic Places
Creating a welcoming and inclusive downtown means you need to understand the rich cultural histories of your historic assets. This guide from the National Trust for Historic Preservation explores strategies to preserve sites of African American history
The Greenest Building
This groundbreaking study concludes that building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.
Fire Safety in Historic Buildings
As you work with property owners to develop historic structures for retail, housing, and other uses, it is important to understand the necessary fire safety upgrades you need to make. Handbook published by National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Washington, DC © Lori Feinman
Community Visioning in a Nutshell
This nutshell guide will guide you through this process, and provide recommendations for templates and further recommended resources that will support you in developing your own materials.
Workplan Template
This template provides everything you need to create a comprehensive workplan for your next non-profit project.
How to Engage Your Downtown Business Owners
This training from Indiana Main Street explains the best practices for getting to know your downtown business owners and getting them engaged in the Main Street organization.
A Layperson’s Guide to Historic Preservation Law
This guide from the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides an overview of the laws you need to understand to support the historic buildings in your downtown district.
Toccoa, GA © Steph Maley
A Housing Guidebook for Local Leaders
As part of our "At Home on Main Street" project, this guidebook provides detailed guidance on zoning, regulations, downtown vacancies, real estate funding, and more to help local leaders improve housing access and affordability in their communities.
Foundations: Design
Design is one of the Four Points of the Main Street Approach, the leading downtown and commercial district revitalization framework.
