High Street in Baldwin City
MAIN STREET The resurgence of the city’s downtown has been in the making for years and is now augmented by its inclusion in the Kansas Main Street project. by Bob Luder, photos by Steven Hertzog
Assessing the evolution of downtown Baldwin City brings to mind the proverbial question about the chicken and the egg. Is the resurgence of “main street” business the result of being one of three towns in the state to be designated for the Kansas Main Street project? Or was Baldwin City awarded the designation because of its downtown rebirth? Which came first? All indications point to the latter. While it was announced just in March that Baldwin City had joined Atchison and Junction City as Kansas Main Street communities, which entitle those communities to state-funded grants and consulting services, the renaissance of the downtown area has been years in the making. Venerable businesses like Baldwin State Bank, founded in 1892, and 32-year-old Quilters’ Paradise anchor the square, but look around. What once was a line of vacant, hollowed-out buildings now is a collection of burgeoning businesses. Across the street from the bank is the Lumberyard Arts Center, a multipurpose space that houses an art gallery as well as a boutique and performance and class spaces. Down the street are buzzing businesses like JAW Bats, a one-man shop that creates custom-made baseball bats for customers worldwide, and Antiques on the Prairie, which rents space to antique dealers and much more. On the other side of the street are established businesses like Gregg Bruce Auto 20
