Main Street Wayne

Discover Main Street

“Cooperation to achieve goals that benefit all…commitment to ensuring our future by preservation of the past…hard work…a strong volunteer spirit -- these are all hallmarks of the Main Street Wayne Program.”

A community’s downtown business district—its Main Street—is a key component of its political, social, physical, and economic values and components. According to the National Main Street Center, the downtown often accounts for as many as 30 percent of the community’s jobs and as much as 40 percent of its tax base. Downtown is more than an economic asset, though. It is also a community’s crossroad and showplace, a place in a citizen’s heart and mind that evokes strong emotions and helps define the community’s identity.

In 1977, the National Main Street Center in Washington, D.C. started the Main Street Program as a self-help project aimed at revitalizing the downtowns of America. Today, the approach has been identified as the nation’s most comprehensive economic development plan. The programs can be found in more than 42 states and 18,000 communities nationwide with populations fewer than 50,000.

Wayne joined the program in 1998 and was the tenth Nebraska community at that time to belong to the Nebraska Lied Main Street Program. The Wayne program was started originally as a splinter group of the Wayne Area Chamber of Commerce at the urging of a small group of downtown merchants who felt that the downtown area of Wayne could be better than it was and that a revitalized downtown could benefit the community. At the time the application was completed, filed and approved by the state program, the Chamber Board decided that the Main Street group should be a separate entity. The goal of Main Street Wayne is to encourage, promote, and support downtown Wayne’s economic vitality as well as the image and appearance of downtown. It was felt that an active downtown would be a symbol of community economic health, local quality of life, and pride in community and its history.