It’s a Saturday afternoon and the downtown streets are filled with people going in and out of the businesses and lingering on the street talking with friends.
This could be describing the period of time in the ’50s and ’60s or maybe it’s describing the 20’ and 30’s.
If it’s the period of the 1950s and 1960s the businesses would have been mostly retail with department stores, hardware stores and cafes near the train station. This would have been a period of time when downtown areas like Weldon were the regional shopping center. This would have been in a period of time before Interstate 95 had been built and Hwy 301 was the main North-South highway delivering traffic into town and when several trains a day were stopping in Weldon.
In this podcast episode of the Weldon Advocate, I want to Cast a Vision for Downtown Weldon.
The opening statement could be describing the 20’s and 30’s, the years in the 2020s and 2030s.
In this period, most of the businesses may be the type that provides an experience. Whether its several restaurants with evening entertainment, a coffee/ice cream shop, a taproom with craft beer or antique and thrift stores fulfilling a treasure hunters delight. Some will be tourism-related businesses like a place to rent a kayak or float tube for an afternoon on the river. Maybe it’s a riverboat cruise or a ghost tour.
In the past, Downtown Weldon was situated in such a way that it was THE draw for the region. Now, with the regional shopping center being where Walmart is and the majority of Weldon’s population lives closer to the interstate than they do to downtown. Weldon will need to find a way to attract businesses that can survive and thrive and not try to compete with the interstate businesses that are two miles away.
Weldon as a tourist destination is possible. We have many of the necessary elements to make it happen.
But how do we get there?
We take what we have,
We work with it and
We make it happen.
I’ve been working on revitalization efforts in Downtown Weldon for more than 25 yrs. In that time we have had several studies done and talked with lots of people on what we need to do to make Weldon viable again.
In nearly every case there have been two suggestions.
Weldon will need to find a niche to make it unique and different from the shopping centers and we need to “work with what you have and make it work for us”.
One study concluded that we should create Weldon into a tourist destination.
What do we have to work with?
- We have our history and many sites to see, like
- The Roanoke Canal and Aqueduct
- The First Railroad Building in The State,
- One of the First Electric Power plants in the country
- we have the Roanoke River and the beautiful River Falls Park.
- We have several businesses that could be categorized as places to find treasures. Riverside Mill Antiques, Crafts and Outlets, Downtown Weldon Flea Market and several other thrift stores.
- And the recent opening of the Weldon Mills Distillery which when in full operation will work to attract tour buses and group tours to Weldon.
These assets of our community need to be promoted and used to attract visitors to come and enjoy what we have to offer.
We need to work with what we have
Cast a vision for what we want
Work to attract the types of businesses we want
And Repeat
I believe that if we use what we have to attract visitors to Weldon we will begin to see rings of success happen. By attracting more people to Weldon we’ll see our downtown businesses thriving and being more successful, which will lead to more businesses wanting to open in Weldon, which will lead to a greater need for more places for the visitors and citizens to shop, eat and be entertained at.
For the second ring of success, we could see additional
Treasure Hunting businesses opening in Weldon.
We could work to see some tourism-related businesses opening like
a Canoe, Kayak, Tubing Rental, and Guide Service.
And a River Boat Cruise with a storyteller, telling all sorts of fishy tales.
How about a tour guide service and maybe even a Ghost Tour.
There will come the need to have more places to stay in Weldon. We could see a
Bed & Breakfast Inn or two or more open
How about a RV park, Even Houseboat rentals
Then as another ring of success we will have several really nice restaurants open.
In addition to these assets and ideas, we have the efforts of our community leaders to attract an Amtrak station in Weldon.
To make Weldon vibrate again, it will take work to make it happen.
Let’s Make It Happen!
In the next podcast, I’ll tell you about the financial benefits of attracting tourists to our town.
Thank you for listening…if you have not done so yet be sure to subscribe to this podcast. Just hit the subscribe button in the whichever podcast app you are using to listen to the Weldon Advocate.
To assist in getting the ball rolling, I have created a Self Guided Walking Tour connecting Weldon’s sites to see and things to do. It’s on the website WeldonNC.com. The Walking Tour can be followed using your smartphone. By using something like this to begin to attract visitors to Weldon we’ll begin to see the first ring of success.
In addition to the Walking Tour which can be enjoyed right now, I envision creating Weldon into a treasure hunters destination using the businesses that are in that category. A Treasure Hunt type event can be created that will draw people to Weldon and support these businesses.
I know this can happen, this being having tourists wandering our streets enjoying Weldon.
Once upon a time when we owned the bed and breakfast inn, I produced two issues of a 48-page magazine called Beyond The Exit, it highlighted the sites to see and things to do that were beyond the exit of hotels and restaurants. It was geared toward the I-95 traveler that was spending the night at the exit and was looking for something interesting to do before they hit the road again.
When that publication was in circulation we often saw people walking around town with that magazine in hand, looking at and exploring the sights to see and things to do.
And by the way, I am creating a new Beyond The Exit website that will promote all of the communities in the area. That is will be a topic for a future podcast.
Well…Call me crazy, but for Weldon to be vibrant again, it will take some crazy ideas and hard work to get there.