20th Anniversary: Impact That Talks – Sandy Lucy
Logan Breer | October 12, 2026
How would you describe Downtown Washington?
Well, that is a big question, and I’m a talker, so let’s start with when I was a kid. Washington was really the only place to shop when I was young. My mom would take me to Droege’s and Mauntel’s because we didn’t shop at chains or franchises. At that time, downtown was also the only place with things to do with a bowling alley and drug store with a soda fountain. I have so many memories at that soda fountain as it was close to the high school, so us kids could go there after we got off from school—or during the day when we skipped school.
As the years went by, like many communities, more franchises opened near the highway and cars became more popular. With people having more mobility, they began traveling to St. Louis to shop at the mall and other bigger franchise retailers, which put pressure on small businesses. As a result, downtown experienced a dip, but at no point was Downtown Washington ever boarded up—it never died. During this period of decline, merchants rallied to find solutions for bringing people back.
Before we get to Downtown Washington today, what was it like working with other merchants to attract people back?
Well Gary and I wanted our art gallery, the Gary R. Lucy Gallery, to be successful and we knew that meant the whole downtown needed to be successful. We got involved with the merchant groups including the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Washington, Inc., which was originally the Washington Downtown Shopping Center, Inc. It was there we met wonderful people like Pam Edgington and Eunice Elbert. We also ran into a lot of critics. We all had our own different ideas of how to make Downtown Washington better. Many of the older gentlemen at the time wanted to run a bunch of sales, while the four of us wanted to start addressing reasons why people weren’t wanting to come downtown starting with the condition of Front Street, product options, and building appearance.
“I remember Gary saying in one of those meetings something along the lines of, ‘When it comes to Walmart you are not going to be able to compete with their prices, but what you are able to do is offer specialty merchandise’.”
One of the many good things that came out of those meetings was working with the chamber and the city to come up with a solution. By working together, it got us talking and working together, not against each other.
Tell me more about the wins Washington has experienced.
Well one of them was focusing on our riverfront. We all couldn’t believe it when we first heard someone say, “Your biggest asset is the Missouri River.” To us we all thought it was this overgrown, dangerous thing, but Jim Briggs, the city engineer at the time, said the city could commit to helping improve the riverfront. Within two weeks I would say a path had been cleared to the river, and it did look beautiful. As people began coming to see the river it led to years of investment on Front Street and other parts of Washington. It really made a difference, and people didn’t just come to see the river; they came to shop as well.
The next big win we had was becoming part of the Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC) network. This provided such a great opportunity for our community and its business and property owners. Gayla Roten was amazing and provided such good insight into where we needed to go as a community to navigate the economic and social challenges we were facing. I remember one thing she said to this day,
“To have a thriving downtown you need to have a nighttime population. That means heads in beds, not people in bars.”
Being a part of MMSC’s network also connected us to Main Street America, where several of us attended their conference in 2009 held in Chicago, IL. We went on a bus tour where we visited Batavia, St. Charles, and Elgin. It was this tour that sparked the idea of the riverfront townhomes we have today. Andy was so inspired by how they developed their brownstones and Andy had the vision to make that happen in Washington. I cannot imagine us coming up with that without attending the Main Street Conference.
What do you enjoy about MAC attending MMSC’s annual conference?
Don’t let anyone get in your way of doing what’s best for you and your community. You wouldn’t believe how much flack Gary and I got from people in town when we installed the first fabric awnings for the gallery or when we acquired a few downtown properties and converted the upper story into our home, which has a wonderful back window that looks over the Missouri River. I can’t blame them, because at that time there wasn’t much confidence in downtown and the attitude was, “Downtown is going to die.” It did take years of investment and empowerment to change the attitude to what it is today. What really helped the most was Main Street as well as listening and implementing their methodology. It may feel like it is completely opposite of what some people want, and I remember it being that way for some of the gentlemen in our merchant group who just wanted to do sales, but it works. It provided the framework to get us where we are today, a GAMSA award winning accredited Main Street community. I tell that to everyone who comes into the gallery and asks about Washington.
The “Memories on Main Street” 20th anniversary book is now available on our website. Please visit www.momainstreet.org/shop to order your book today where you can read a different perspective on Sandy and Andy’s story. Stay tuned to our socials for more 20th anniversary stories from the people connected to this amazing movement that has revitalized countless communities across Missouri.
If you would like to know more about MAC, contact [email protected]. Michael and his team would love to talk with you.
