Downtown Improvements Are Reshaping Glade Spring, Va.

GLADE SPRING, Va. – Looks may not be everything, but leaders in this small Washington County town say a long-awaited face lift is a step in the right direction.

With new pavement, streetlights, landscaping and smooth sidewalks on the town square, Glade Spring’s downtown revitalization is taking on a visual reality.

"I think people didn’t know how to turn it back around, but once they started seeing things turn ... the train started rolling," town Councilman Lee Coburn said last week as a fast-moving freight train rumbled past the square." You start planting a seed, people start seeing change ... it gets infectious."

Coburn has a view of the square through the front window of his business, Coburn Creative, which he literally built from the ground up.

When he moved to the area four years ago, he was looking for a building where he could live and work – far away from the rat race of Atlanta.

In Glade Spring, he chose a building that had been condemned, then gutted it and rebuilt it inside and out. He also plans revitalization for an adjoining block of buildings he just bought.

"They will look like these [refurbished] buildings over time," Coburn said. "A lot of internal things have to happen to those buildings that you’re not going to see on the outside."

He’s not the only one who’s been finding new uses for the old buildings in the square. Jeff Wallace, pastor of the Church of New Beginnings, is president of a community development corporation that has purchased several of the buildings.

"We’re interested in people," Wallace said. "People make up a community."

A few of years ago, the corporation, called Arise Community Development Corp., opened a church youth and community center downtown, with skateboard ramps inside an adjoining building.

"Wednesday night is kind of our youth night, so we’ve got a lot of kids over there," Wallace said. "I think a lot of the kids around the area are just looking for a place to hang out."

Wallace said apartments are being renovated in the upstairs of the buildings as temporary housing for people in need, and he hopes a coffee shop will someday occupy the old bank building the organization also owns.

Glade Spring Mayor Steve Rowland said he also hopes to see a coffee shop, plus specialty shops and other businesses.

"It’s just starting to blossom," Rowland said. "It’s just starting to take off."

Many projects have come together for downtown over the past year, but the paving project is one that started more than a decade ago.

"It was something we’ve worked on probably since I’ve been on there," said Rick Call, referring to his 12 years as a member of the Glade Spring Town Council.

"I think it just lends to the other good things that are happening in Glade that have it all coming together at one time," he said. "I guess we were all due. We had years where it seemed like nothing good was happening, so it was our turn."

Among the projects are a new library coming to the square and a hiking and biking trail that will connect to the town. Despite opposition from some, the Salt Trail has been under construction for more than a year by the town of Saltville and is scheduled to open this summer.

The plan is for the library to move from a small building on Gray Street to a two-story brick building in the square that was donated to the town.

Henrietta Umberger, who is involved with the project, said she hopes renovations will begin this summer with the library opening within three years.

Improvements to the square have spurred the idea of having downtown festivals.

"We’ve all been wanting to have one for quite a while, and we weren’t able to do it at the other times," said Betty Wimmer, who is putting together the first Glade Spring Old Railroad Days, set for July 18-20. "We’ve got electric hookups now and a nice area to do it in now, whereas before we didn’t have it."

She said the festival will raise money to buy new equipment for the Glade Spring Volunteer Fire Department, and she hopes other festivals will follow.

"I think it’ll bring people, just the right people to look at the place just to see if they might be interested in opening up a business. That’s what we’re hoping," said Phillip Wimmer, Betty’s husband.

"Three or four years ago if you said, ‘Let’s plan a celebration downtown,’ people would’ve laughed at you," said Rowland, the mayor. "Now they’re getting excited."

Other small steps being taken downtown are creation of a garden just off the square and the addition of a 16-year-old weekly jam session held downtown to the Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail.

Some longtime residents, who remember the days when they went into the town to shop on crowded streets, hope they will someday be able to do so again. But they don’t expect the past to be recreated.

"I’ve heard a long time ago it was a very prosperous little place, and I doubt it will ever come back to the way it was," said Umberger, who is involved with the library project. "But it could change. It could come alive in another way."

Mayor Rowland said the town’s rebirth is being influenced by two national trends – the retirement of baby boomers at a younger age and the high price of gasoline.

"In this transition period, I think you’re going to see people staying closer to home," Rowland said. "If you can buy a product 30 miles away for half the price, if it cost you 50 cents there and $1 here, by the time you go down there, you’ve got $10 invested in gasoline."

The changes downtown – here and in other communities – also reflect the movement back to the heartland by some city dwellers who have an outside perspective on the value of a small town.

"There’s a lot of people getting involved, and that’s fantastic," Coburn said. "We’re going to turn it around up here. It may take a little while, we may die trying, but just, we’re gonna do it. But it’s gonna happen. That’s the bottom line: It’s gonna happen."

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701