PRESERVATION MONTH
Every May, Missouri Main Street Connection participates in Preservation Month by partnering with local Main Street programs to promote and advocate for the preservation of Missouri’s historic places and cultural assets.
Missouri Main Street Connection continues celebrating Preservation Month this year with its theme “This Place Matters”. This theme was created and is used by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to promote the ideals of preservation-based economic development found in the Main Street Approach™ and its impact on local economies. Places are the tangible spaces where intangible memories, culture, and heritage of a historic commercial district and overall community resides. Preserving these places and cultural assets draws in heritage tourism and supports a vibrant, unique historic commercial district through social and economic benefits. It also connects residents to their past.
If you would like to learn more about the history of Preservation Month, please visit our partner’s website https://savingplaces.org/stories/history-of-preservation-month.
An Open Invitation to You
Missouri Main Street Connection invites you to venture out this May to the many amazing events and activities that Missouri’s Main Streets have planned. Use our brochure to discover unknown history,
display your community pride, celebrate places that are meaningful to your community, and learn about threatened places this year. Visiting and enjoying these opportunities will leave you breathless.
View the
Preservation
Month
Brochure
Welcome Home
Doors have welcomed many people into their homes, places of work, local shops, and more. They make an unconscious first impression on each building we enter. We imagine each time they say “Welcome” as someone enters through their doorway. In Missouri, countless unique and memorable doors still stand in historic buildings just as they have since their installation, serving the same purpose to greet guests with their unique, historic details. In celebration of historic preservation, Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC) is creating a poster which will feature the elegant and intricate doors in Missouri through a photography contest.
We are excited to learn and share with the rest of Missouri the stories behind the doors that you submit! If only these doors could talk about the mundane and significant events that happened around them. From the many memories made, the shop owners cutting the ribbon on their first day open for business, the important news delivered by Pony Express and private meetings; Missouri is a special place full of stories to be shared. We can connect to the people, events, and culture that have shaped our Missouri communities through the memories and stories that are in our hearts and in the physical locations that persevere.
We invite you to participate in this photography contest for a chance for your community and photo to be included in our “Welcome Home Gallery”, “Welcome Home” poster, and “Memories on Main Street” publication.
How to Participate:
- Visit a historic commercial district. See our map of communities that have Main Street designations to know where to start. Submissions are not limited to Main Street communities.
- Take a photo of a unique, historic door or find a stunning picture you have in your camera roll from a previous visit to a historic commercial district in Missouri. Remember a door can be historic if it is 50 years or older.
- Submit the photo, a short description or reflection on why this door is meaningful to you or the community and your contact information through our contest form on our website between April 15th through May 31st.
- MMSC will review submissions and notify finalists by June 15th. Finalists will be featured in a “Welcome Home Gallery” during Missouri’s Premier Downtown Revitalization Conference where attendees will start voting for the winners to be featured on a “Welcome Home” poster. Voting will last until October 31st and be hosted on MMSC’s website following the conference.
Submission Details
Each submission should be focused on a historic, architecturally unique, or meaningful door in a historic commercial district in Missouri. Additionally, each submission should include a short bio statement with mention of your connection to Missouri and a narrative that will serve as the foundation for a caption for the judges and attendees to the “Welcome Home Gallery” at Missouri’s Premier Downtown Revitalization Conference to learn more about why this photo was submitted.
We are curious about the connections between historic places and the human experience with a specific emphasis on Missouri’s historic
commercial district’s role.
AI Clause: Missouri Main Street Connection seeks submissions that express the memories and emotions that are unique to each person’s human experience, and therefore only original human creative works will be accepted. The use of AI is strictly prohibited. If your submission is found to violate this policy, any submission by the offender will be disqualified and be denied from inclusion in the gallery, poster, and publication. Spellcheck and grammar tools on your finished description is not AI and is allowed.
Intellectual Property: By submitting to Missouri Main Street Connection’s for the “Welcome Home” contest, you grant MMSC publishing rights in perpetuity for the materials included in the submission. You will retain the copyright for your contributions.
Questions: Contact Logan at logan@momainstreet.org
