ALTUS – The Main Street program in this far southwest Oklahoma community will celebrate three decades of helping downtown businesses survive and thrive.
Founded in 1992, the Altus Main Street effort was designed to help revitalize downtown and bring a renewed energy to that area of the city. Thirty years later, the Altus Main Street program is stronger than ever and businesses in the area are constantly winning awards from the Oklahoma Main Street organization.
In 2021, seven downtown merchants won awards in the annual Oklahoma Main Street competition, including The Cotton Patch for Business of the Year.
Altus Main Street Executive Director Lynna Wilmes said the program has a solid partnership with city hall, which is its biggest financial supporter. Wilmes, who was working at the chamber of commerce when Main Street started 30 years ago, has been in her current job for three years.
“We have good people in our district who care,” she said. “We have a good, strong base, and we want the entire community to be involved in whatever we do.”
The Main Street district includes all of the downtown historic buildings and extends several blocks each direction. The district includes the Jackson County Courthouse, which is undergoing renovations, and a proposed downtown park which the city is funding with a MAPS II sales tax.
“Our priority is keeping life in downtown and the stores full,” Wilmes said. “We’d like it to be a place where people come at night and enjoy themselves. We want to keep things alive in our downtown area.”
Some of the Main Street events include the Walkin’ on Chalk Arts Festival and the Farm Fest Chili Cookoff in October.
“Everything we do we want to make it bigger and better and to keep the historic feel to downtown,” Wilmes said. “We don’t want a ghost town.”
That’s not likely to happen with businesses like the Whirlwind Book Bar, whose innovative owners have made the store a happening place for Altus residents and travelers as far away as Lawton and areas of north Texas.
Whirlwind Book Bar owners Jake and Heather Babcock took on a greatly dilapidated building so Heather could realize her dream of owning a bookstore. The plan was to return the building to its original splendor and keep it as historically accurate as possible, according to information provided by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
The exterior brick on the second story of the building remained untouched, but the first floor was another story with layers of peeling paint. The front corner was seriously damaged, and windows were boarded and bricked up. The first floor brick was cleaned and painted to match the second story, the corner was repaired with bricks from other parts of the building and the windows reopened.
Whirlwind Book Bar was presented with the award for the Best Façade Rehabilitation over $10,000 during the 2021 Oklahoma Main Street ceremony.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of growth the last four years and I credit the book bar for a lot of that,” Wilmes said. “We have a lot of young (business) people downtown now and that’s made a big difference. We have anything you’d want in a downtown.”
In addition, Altus business Perry & Co. won the 2021 award for the Best Façade Rehabilitation under $10,000. The 1906 Perry & Co. Building was rundown and outdated. During the renovation, the owners created a welcoming and inviting atmosphere that is a huge attraction in downtown Altus. Updates included new windows, lighting, a seam strip metal awning, signage and the “Dream Big” Marilyn Monroe mural to welcome guests as they entered through the pink back door.
“We have downtown stores for shopping, eating, boutiques and we have a fabulous shoe store,” Wilmes said. “We have stores you really don’t see anymore.”
The Altus Main Street program is preparing to start a new sign grant program that will help merchants install more attractive, newer signs on their businesses.
“We’re here to improve and do what we can to better downtown Altus and the historic part of downtown,” Wilmes said.
Other downtown businesses won Oklahoma Main Street awards during the 2021 ceremony. They were the Enchanted Alley for Best Placemaking Project, Perry & Co. for Best Building/Business Branding, Southwest Crop Insurance for Best Interior Design Project, Dunkel Law Firm for Best Business Practices.