Macon and Ste. Genevieve: Two Communities, Defining Their Success
Logan Breer | August 31, 2026
Historic commercial districts are being fundamentally transformed across Missouri. Community stakeholders are accomplishing this by utilizing the Main Street Approach™ to inform the work of their new or mature nonprofit Main Street organizations. In 2025 alone, over 107,000 volunteer hours, equating to $3.75 million in economic value, were contributed to downtown revitalization efforts in Main Street districts of all sizes around the state. These hours show the determination of community members to bring together individuals, local organizations, and groups as well as the scalability of the Main Street Approach™ to drive intentional economic development based on community input, market demographics information, and the capacity of the community and Main Street program.
Macon and Ste. Genevieve are two communities who are defining what success looks like for them. Each community is in the initial stages of the Community Empowerment Grant program and has partnered with Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC) to identify a specific, community-specific economic strategy for downtown, using common threads and ideas from gathered community input and local demographic information. In addition, they received additional technical assistance, including resources on the Promotion, Design, Economic Vitality, and Organization Point and services through MMSC’s partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Macon
Macon is a small town of around 5,500 people located in north central Missouri. The Mainstreet Macon Downtown Association, Macon’s local downtown organization, has been around for decades, and recently took the initiative to become a more well-rounded Main Street program focused on comprehensive economic development. The organization is currently in the discovery phase where they are gathering data that will be used to identify the economic direction for downtown. As part of this discovery, the community received branding, renderings, education, and tools from MMSC’s Resource Team to support their journey in building the capacity of the organization through MMSC’s Community Empowerment Grant program. Each of the services and resources provided were tailored to the community’s needs based on gathered input. These recommendations will help set the stage for a vibrant economic environment in the downtown area.
Ste. Genevieve
Ste. Genevieve is a community steeped in tradition and history. They recently started a Main Street program to connect their events, historic preservation, and beautification efforts. By intentionally bringing these efforts together, they will take downtown to the next level economically. As part of the USDA services, an economic development guide was created to strategically recruit new businesses and provide support for existing businesses downtown. This enhanced focus led to the tailored economic strategy, “Growing Local Prosperity”, which is a reference to the name of the local Main Street organization, Prospérité Ste. Geneviève, as well as a local call to action to focus on lifting the economic vibrancy of downtown through efforts not only focused on visitors but community members.
MMSC is excited to see how Macon and Ste. Genevieve take their next steps towards implementing the recommendations and resources from these USDA visits and further developing its community-based ideas. These communities have done amazing things in the past to get downtown to where it is today. By intentionally bringing these efforts together, each community is creating a more coordinated approach to downtown revitalization.
