Downtown Comes Alive With New Businesses
Sallie Stimatz says it was a no-brainer.
Even though she’s a fairly new Elizabeth City resident, Stimatz knew there was a certain significance to purchasing Rachel’s Place and reopening it as Three Squares Café. Walking away from the opportunity simply wasn’t an option, she says.
“To have let Rachel’s close would have been a disservice,” Stimatz says of the former restaurant. “There is so much going on in downtown Elizabeth City, it would have left a huge void.”
There are obviously others here who feel the same way about downtown Elizabeth City, which is experiencing a revitalization that has energized the waterfront town.
The focus on downtown can be traced to the city becoming a Main Street Community in 1988. The National Trust for Historic Preservation created the Main Street program in 1980, and now there are more than 15,000 Main Street communities across the country.
“Both Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County benefit from a revitalized downtown business district,” says Peggy Langley, executive director of Elizabeth City Downtown Inc. “ECDI provides a return on investment to taxpayers.
Local government will see an increase in tax revenue from increased property values due to property improvements and will also see an increase in the sale of business licenses due to an increase in the number of businesses located downtown. Having a healthy downtown also helps reduce sprawl.”
Stimatz’s Three Squares Café, which opened in May 2009 in the historic Virginia Dare Arcade, is one of several businesses that are breathing new life into downtown Elizabeth City.
Others of note include Poor David’s Antiques, Collectibles & More on East Fearing Street, and the Firefly gift shop and The Chocolate House on North Water Street.
In addition, the ECDI has been instrumental in other recent changes to downtown. The organization helped preserve the hospital dome at Waterfront Park, and it partnered with the city of Elizabeth City on the downtown streetscape project and the development of Moth Boat Park. ECDI also purchased the downtown clock on Main Street and new holiday lights and banners for lampposts on the thoroughfare.
“Elizabeth City has one of the most active downtowns I’ve ever seen,” says Stimatz, who moved here in 2002 from Washington, D.C. “There are lots of things going on here, lot of funs things to do. It’s just a very vibrant area.”
It’s that vibrancy that helped to influence David and Linda Hawkins to open Poor David’s Antiques in downtown Elizabeth City in May 2009.
The couple moved here in 1988, restored an old home on Main Street and became business owners 21 years later.
“I feel that the downtown area is a small community of its own,” says Linda Hawkins. “The business owners help by frequenting each others’ businesses, and the community seems to enjoy having an active downtown and a variety of local businesses.”
Story by John McBryde
