Downtown Salisbury Inc.

I received a nice thank you note the other day from Aaron Clinard, Chairman of The City Project, Inc., High Point, NC’s downtown development corporation.  About 20 of the people involved in that effort recently visited Salisbury to see our progress toward making our downtown a special place.

What stood out most in his note was the comment about the widespread enthusiasm we have in this community for downtown development and preservation.  It reminded me of incidents with two of our downtown heroes, Paul Fisher and Mike Fuller.

Removing metal façades from the 1960s is something present in the DNA of every downtown development person, or so I thought.  Late one night I received a phone call from Paul Fisher and found out that it was not a hereditary trait, it was a virus, and Paul Fisher was infected.  Mr. Paul was in the throes of the F&M Financial Center project.  He called me one night on my cell phone, telling me that they had begun tearing off the metal façade at the building at 225 N. Main and what a jewel they were uncovering…  He said he was so excited that he wanted to go down there and tear the rest of the metal off with his bare hands.  I suspect that he told Randy Goodman to be back early the next day because Randy had the metal off in record time and Mr. Paul turned one of the ugliest buildings in the downtown back into one of the prettiest.

My Board president Mike Fuller also had a full case of the virus.  DSI had just purchased the buildings at 210-214 S. Main (to the right of the Gateway Building).  Covered in ugly metal, Mike could not wait to get it off.  One afternoon we surmised the task and began work.  A truck, a piece of rope, a ladder and a dose of craziness was all it took.  It was as we thought, and as the photo above shows, very much like peeling a banana…  Mike’s virus was not easily cured as witnessed in his later transformation of Innes Street Drug at 112-114 S. Main.

Planning, perseverance, and a number of other factors have been part of the rebirth of Downtown Salisbury.  The most important element has been enthusiasm, and I am thankful for the enthusiasm of people like Paul Fisher and Mike Fuller.