The Texas Main Street Program: a development force integrating historic preservation and tourism

Abstract

Historic preservation has had difficulty shifting its focus of attention from physical changes in the built environment to the wider impacts of preservation activity. Cities on the other hand, have underestimated the role of the architectural heritage as a tourist attraction. This study investigated the impact of the Texas Main Street Program as a solution to this problem. The study was restricted to investigating the cities of Georgetown, Grapevine and Pittsburgh in Texas. The study investigated firstly the importance of architectural heritage as a tourist attraction. The study also assessed both positive and negative impacts of heritage tourism in small cities. The results showed that the three cities benefited by significant increases in both sales and property tax revenues. The increase in the number of jobs was less significant. All three cities have achieved a laudable progress in historic preservation as well as economic development. This study supports further tourism development and diversification of the job market by attracting other types of businesses to achieve a balanced development.