Partnerships Help to Grow Downtown Laurinburg

On the track to becoming a Main Street city.

LAURINBURG, NC – April 2017

In the past few years, Main Street Laurinburg has undergone steady, drastic improvements. City government has prioritized revitalizing downtown. With the efforts of staff and volunteers, this vision is becoming a reality. The City of Laurinburg is transitioning from a Downtown Associate Community Program member to the Main Street Program, administered by the N.C. Department of Commerce. There are several tasks that the Department of Commerce asks of each Downtown Associate Community member to join the Main Street Program, in this case including information-gathering from downtown business owners and consumers as well as a Laurinburg Downtown Vision forum. We hope to become a full Main Street city by July 2018.

A little over two years ago, the decision was made to take an old abandoned service station on the corner of Church and Main streets and turn it into something the citizens of Laurinburg can be proud of. The idea of creating an art garden with metal sculptures created by students at UNC Pembroke was the result. The Laurinburg Art Garden is approaching its first year anniversary, and city government will again team up with UNCP and professor Adam Walls to install new sculptures. They’ll be unveiled on April 29 as part of the Spring Arts Festival put on by the Arts Council of Scotland County.

One project now in progress involves property at 115 Main St. This city-owned property was a vacant building being transformed into a pass-through for parking access. We have erected steel to make the structure stable and performed masonry work to the old block. The old storefront was torn out to give the property an open feel. Block retaining walls have been installed for use as planters. After one more step — installing brick pavers — the pass-through will be complete.