Historic Downtown McKinney

Main Street is a national program born out of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since 1980, the National Main Street Center has been working with communities across the nation to revitalize historic commercial areas. Based on historic preservation, the Main Street approach was developed to save historic commercial architecture, but has become a powerful economic development tool as well.

The Main Street program is designed to improve all aspects of downtown, producing both tangible and intangible benefits. Improving economic management, strengthening public participation and marketing downtown as a fun place to visit is as critical to Main Street's future as recruiting new businesses and rehabilitating buildings. Building on downtown's inherent assets - rich architecture, personal service, traditional values and most of all, a sense of place - the Main Street approach supports entrepreneurship, downtown cooperation and civic concern.

The Main Street program has earned national recognition as a practical strategy appropriately scaled to local resources and conditions. And because it is a locally-driven program, all initiatives stem from local issues and concerns.