The Department is pleased to announce that the Corporation for Downtown Development in Silver City has successfully concluded Cycle 1 of the Rural Pathway Project.

 

The Steering Committee actively engaged in five 4-hour workshops to develop their idea of a historical architecture tour from “project concept” to implementation. “Stories From Our Streets, Discover the town that was built to last” will be an interpretive walking tour of 19 historic buildings throughout downtown Silver City narrated by the people who have occupied them, both past and present. Cast bronze plaques located in front of each of the building will briefly describe notable history and act as a primary driver to Silver City’s website by encouraging participants to engage with the tour digitally through an interactive webpage located on Silver City’s main tourism site. This webpage will offer a more comprehensive history of the buildings and an audio-guide option narrated by local historians and other town residents who have personal, engaging stories about the buildings’ history. To ensure ongoing sustainability, “Stories from our Streets” will also offer live reenactments of the history depicted throughout the tour during Silver City’s most popular events and students of the Western Institute of Lifelong Learning will continue researching their local downtown to continue growing the tour. The tour will also aid in local downtown revitalization efforts by creating a united front for the entire downtown. “Stories From Our Streets” window decals will be placed on downtown merchant’s storefront windows to peek interest in the tour and provide a localized learning opportunity for the purpose of expanding local pride and our historic awareness.

 

Anonymous feedback from Silver City participants:

 

Suzy was awesome. She was extremely conscientious, interactive, engaged, and thoughtful. I really do want her to be our forever coach.

 

I came away from the workshops with a very positive impression of the Dept of Tourism, both for identifying the unique needs of rural communities and for recognizing that such communities need training in order to be successful planning and implementing projects. I respect the fact that the dept wants to train communities to make the best use of grant monies that you control and wants to provide training to help us be successful. You have given us information and training that we will use over and over again.

 

I think this is an excellent project and one that is different than most in that the leadership has been provided to look at these projects as more than just a stand-alone project that is put into place and left to run on its own. Because the bigger picture was truly evaluated, the long-term success is better chartered than most projects.