Even by the small state of Connecticut’s standards, the village of Georgetown is small. Comprised of the corners of four towns — Redding, Weston, Wilton, and Ridgefield — the historic village was created in the 1800s around the Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill. The workers needed a village to serve their needs, so the Wire Mill built up Georgetown with housing, markets, places of worship, a post office, and more. The Wire Mill shut its doors in 1989, but Georgetown has remained a quirky yet vibrant Main Street with several restaurants and local businesses.

Accelerating Georgetown

Today, the downtown is managed by Georgetown Village Restoration, Inc. (GVR), an all-volunteer group of dedicated and proactive volunteers focused on the area’s continued vibrancy. GVR had a goal to improve their brand identity and increase visibility of the Main Street area through independent merchandise that captured the spirit of Georgetown in a timeless fashion.

To catalyze this goal, the GVR team was part of the inaugural 2024 cohort of Connecticut Main Street Center’s Main Street Accelerator Program. Through Accelerator, the GVR team brainstormed ideas for merchandise and how to strengthen their branding and identity and created a project action plan, one-page flyer marketing the project, and a project budget. Post-program, GVR leveraged a $5,000 Accelerator grant to move forward with implementing their merchandising plan.

GVR rolled out their new merchandise at their 2024 Georgetown Day with amazing results, generating over $1,000 of revenue and $340 of profit — quite impressive for a village with a population of only 1,751. The shirts, mugs, caps, and key chains charmed customers, with many people sharing stories of the local Saloon, one of the establishments featured on the merchandise, driving a nostalgic demand for purchases. Throughout the year, GVR continued to expand their product line to include sweatshirts, Christmas ornaments and cutting boards — all designed by local artists and craftsmen. Using social media to drive traffic toward their website to increase sales, they also employed an exclusive release strategy for their next in-person event that led to people lining up to grab items before they were sold out, this time netting them over $380 in profit. At their next big in-person event in June 2025, they introduced new payment options, making purchases easier, and again leading to over $1,000 in sales.

The merchandise sparked community pride as customers reminisced about establishments featured in the designs. It offered people who had moved away the opportunity to bring a piece of Georgetown home with them. People who bought products commented that they were well-designed, good quality, and ​“cool.” 

Recovery with Community

GVR also used their profits to support the community after devastating, ​“once in a thousand year” flooding in August 2024. The Georgetown Cultural and Arts Center, Free Little Library, Gilbert Miller pocket park, and two new businesses about to open were all ruined by the force of water that flowed through Main Street. GVR members provided boots on the ground action to help local businesses rebuild.

They also pledged on their social media that all September merch sales would go directly toward flood relief, rebuilding/​reinstalling the Free Little Library, and the cost to repair the park. During that month, GVR made $551 to put towards this goal, connecting with a community member in charge of the park to replace the native stone that helped keep weeds down and prevent further erosion. The Free Little Library was repaired by a volunteer in the community and reinstalled by GVR members. GVR volunteers also cleaned up messy landscape areas, using merch proceeds to buy and plant flower bulbs for a more cheerful appearance.

From Vision to Visibility

Taken as a whole, GVR has achieved incredible success through their merchandising strategy, including attracting ten new members to their organization. From improving project management skills, budgeting and marketing, to community engagement and increased visibility and credibility, GVR is leveraging their strengths for broader community impact.

As Main Street practitioners know, it’s not enough to have a vision. It must be paired with an incremental, actionable strategy. Georgetown Village Restoration’s thoughtful plan to use hyper-local merchandise as a tool for brand-building revenue generation is doing more than that — it’s demonstrating how a well-managed main street can be a catalyst for community change and genuine economic development.

Learn more about Georgetown Village Restoration and the Connecticut Main Street Center.

Downtown Decorations, a Main Street America Allied Member, is this quarter’s Main Spotlight advertiser. For more information about what they do to support Main Street organizations, click here.