Eclectic's Downtown Gets New Lease On Life

August 13, 2009

By Cosby Woodruff

Progress staff writer

• August 5, 2009

One by one, previously empty buildings in Eclectic's four-block downtown are coming back to life. A restaurant, a fabric shop and a liquor store are among the newcomers. The town's health clinic will soon fill four formerly empty storefronts. The town government itself will soon move into larger quarters, and the former town hall will become the town's first library in years. Eclectic, a town of about 1,200 in central Elmore County, still has something of an uncertain identity, but Mayor Gary Wright and members of the town's merchant's association want to make sure it doesn't lose its downtown. Wright and Aubrey Hornsby, who started the merchant's association, admit Eclectic probably doesn't have the critical mass of consumers needed to become self-supporting in the retail sector, but they insist the town's population can support enough businesses to fill the three dozen or so shops in the downtown district. Barry Mask, a state representative who just started work as director of the Elmore County Economic Development Authority, said the town and its leaders have taken steps in the right di-rection to make Eclectic economically successful. "A lot is happening up there," he said. Founded in 1907, Eclectic was once a cotton-trading center with railroad service and a row of cotton warehouses. Today, it is either a gateway to Lake Martin -- the nearest boat ramp is only a few miles away -- or an outlying bedroom community to Montgomery, some 30 miles distant. Mask said the community could be well served by not trying to pigeonhole itself. "It is just a great place to live," he said. "Downtown they want to spruce it up, but they don't want to lose that small hamlet identity." Eclectic's population rallies around Elmore County High School now, Mask said, and he thinks a revitalized downtown would just give them one more thing to cherish. Hornsby renovated one of the former cotton warehouses, turning it into an entertainment venue called simply the Warehouse, which businesses and other groups can rent out for functions. He said the new venue has created several full-time jobs. Wright estimated that if all the buildings in the downtown area were returned to retail or office use, it could mean as many as 100 jobs in that area, a significant economic boost for the town. "Many people who live here work elsewhere," he said. Downtown's rebirth has not been without controversy, Wright said. Much, if not most, of that controversy came from the idea of having alcohol sales there, both in restaurants and the town's package store, Bama Breeze. Wright said at least some people in Eclectic voiced concerns that the sale of alcohol in downtown would lead to increased crime, but he said those fears are unfounded. He insists the businesses that sell alcohol are good corporate citizens. Of course, not every business in the quaint downtown is new. George B. Johnson has worked in the hardware store that now bears his name for more than seven decades. For much of that time, downtown Eclectic thrived around the hardware outlet that served as a retail anchor. Slowly cotton lost its economic impact. The railroad pulled out first, taking everything -- rails, ties and similar items -- except the former depot. The warehouses went out of business, but Eclectic found a way to keep the doors open. Perhaps the biggest threat came later, when nearby Wetumpka started experiencing retail growth. Then, a shopping trip to a larger store didn't mean driving all the way to Montgomery, just a drive of a dozen or so miles. "This town had started to die about 20 years ago," Wright said. "Businesses vanished, but we have something that has started to change it." Hornsby is a big part of that. He gathered fellow merchants and pushed them to organize. He also put his money where his mouth was, buying several downtown buildings.Some of them he leases to other businesses, but the Warehouse is clearly a centerpiece for the town that has no courthouse. Perhaps the Warehouse's biggest influence has been the launch of a monthly community market called Trade Days. Vendors rent booth space for $25, plus a nominal fee for electricity, and sell whatever wares they bring in. Hornsby said the first event sold out and brought more than 1,000 people to the Warehouse. That was one factor that prompted the city to look at expanding its annual fall celebration, the Cotton Festival. In the past, it has been a one-day, carnival-type event. Now, Eclectic's leaders see the potential for it to be much more. They have hired a professional event planning company to organize the festival and expect it to become a major draw for the area. Wright insists he wants the downtown, and the rest of Eclectic, to grow for the community's sake, not for the town's budget -- although he did say any increase in sales tax collections would be nice for the town's budget. He hopes the town will need a healthy budget to pay for its future projects. Eclectic already has its own police department, and the mayor said other civic projects are on the drawing board. The town's merchant association has met just twice, with one of those meetings dominat¬ed by discussions on the Cotton Festival. The group will function largely as the town's chamber of commerce, trying to rebuild not just a business district, but a town that once appeared to be on the brink of failure.