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Havre de Grace Main Street, Inc.

The Havre de Grace Main Street program is one of a network of more than 2,100 Main Street programs in cities and towns across the country. All have been chartered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street Center to revitalize their commercial districts and preserve their historic character.

A revitalized downtown benefits everyone, from residents to merchants, financial institutions, schools, religious institutions, and community groups. In May 2005 Havre de Grace received its Main Street designation from the Main Street Center; in 2008 the program was accredited. Havre de Grace Main Street, Inc., is a nonprofit volunteer organization guided by a 19-member Board of Directors.

For more information, call 410-939-1811 or email hdgmainstreet@verizon.net.

Havre de Grace Light House
The Arts Collective

City of Havre de Grace has been designated by the State of Maryland as an Official Arts & Entertainment District

We’re singing; we’re dancing; we’re splashing paint; and we’re shouting from the rooftops!

Havre de Grace Main Street, Inc., is delighted to announce that the City of Havre de Grace has been designated by the State of Maryland as an official Arts & Entertainment District. After some months of extremely dedicated work by volunteers on our Arts & Entertainment Committee, the requisite application and supporting documents were completed and submitted to the state. And then we waited. . . . But today the wait is over! The application was successful.

The Arts & Entertainment program is administered by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development through the Maryland State Arts Council. Maryland is the first state in the country to designate Arts and Entertainment areas to use art and cultural resources to revitalize communities. The new district encompasses all of the downtown area of the city, which matches the Main Street District.

Havre de Grace Main Street, a nonprofit corporation, will administer this program through its Arts & Entertainment Committee. Main Street has been active in the City since 2005 when it was accepted into the Main Street Program by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Main Street exists to promote and enhance the historic character and economic vitality of the downtown business district. In December 2007, the Main Street Board of Directors formed this fifth committee to seek the Arts & Entertainment designation because of the complementary goals of the program with the goals and mission of Havre de Grace Main Street.

Havre de Grace, already a popular destination for its small town waterfront atmosphere, has several art galleries, numerous specialty shops and antique stores, a thriving local artists community, a quality group of local eateries, annual arts festivals, and a diverse architectural heritage with historical significance. Main Street’s goals for the Arts & Entertainment District are to encourage arts development while maintaining that small town charm and build the city into a major cultural destination of the Upper Chesapeake region

Arts & Entertainment Districts offer certain tax incentives to attract artists and arts and entertainment enterprises. More information about these benefits can be found on the Web site of the Maryland State Arts Council at www.msac.org. In the near future they will be available on the Havre de Grace Main Street Web site at www.mainstreethdg.com.

Many thanks to those dedicated volunteers on our Arts & Entertainment Committee. Job well done!

Marita O'Connell, Manager
Havre de Grace Main Street, Inc.
121 North Union Avenue, Suite D
Havre de Grace, MD 21078
410-939-1811
www.mainstreethdg.com

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