When local customers first pull up to Hampton Square in Blue Ridge, Georgia, they may not see the fresh start-up businesses housed in the newly renovated building right away. They may be remembering the Pontiac dealership, the International Harvester tractor showroom, the poultry factory, the skating rink and the antique store that had all, at […]
Davison’s Country Store
At the turn of the twentieth century, a small farmstead country store opened in Carters Valley, Tennessee, to the rattle of horse-drawn buggies and the various goings on of the Davidson family farm on which the store was situated. Looney’s Store functioned as a means of trade and barter for local and traveling customers until […]
Rural America Arts Partnership
“That’s Our New Theater” Sometimes art begets art. On his drive home from a poetry festival in Marshall, Minnesota, in the spring of 1998, Ken Flies imagined the basic idea for the Rural America Arts Partnership. He had heard enough that week of abandoned barns and falling silos, and he knew there was a strong […]
Paradise Prairie Products
Representing Plainview A thriving economy begins first with entrepreneurs. They, as it is said, are the yeast of the economy that spur business growth and economic development. Rural communities in southeast Minnesota – to maintain and nurture their vitality and sustain their local economies – must support entrepreneurs who build local businesses. They are essential […]