- Our Software
- Solutions
- Pricing
- Why Locable
- Get a demo
- Login
Downtown Ravenswood Partners is a community-driven organization of local leaders and residents dedicated to making our historic downtown a vibrant place where people want to live, work, and play. We believe that a thriving downtown is essential to the health and well-being of our community. Our goals are to:
1. Encourage economic development and growth in downtown Ravenswood by supporting local businesses. This helps to keep money within our community and fosters a diverse and robust local marketplace.
2. Support existing businesses by helping them access grants and funding sources for historic building rehabilitation and other resources, such as one-on-one coaching, to help them succeed.
3. Improve public spaces with flower planters, public art, lighting, and other amenities such as light pole banners, wayfinding signs, trash cans, and more to create a welcoming and inviting atmosphere for residents and visitors.
4. Organize cultural and social events that provide entertainment, socialization opportunities, and a sense of community cohesion. These events also bring families downtown to shop, eat, and play, improving their quality of life.
5. Provide FREE design and technical assistance services to assist building owners with rehabilitation and redevelopment projects. These can include facade and building renovation plans, signage and lighting, paint color schemes, and environmental contamination remediation through our community-wide EPA assessment grant.
Ravenswood WV and the surrounding areas of Jackson County, Wood, Mason, and Roane Counties, and Meigs County Ohio.
In early 2024, the City of Ravenswood was selected as one of three cities in the state to participate in the prestigious OnTrac program. OnTrac is administered under Main Street West Virginia, in partnership with Main Street America. Main Street America is a non-profit organization that provides a structured approach to revitalize the downtown areas of cities across the US. After successfully meeting certain milestones as an OnTrac community, we will be eligible to become our 501c3 non-profit Main Street organization. In the meantime, our basic costs are funded by the City of Ravenswood in partnership with the Fund for Ravenswood.
Mayor Josh Miller and the City Council made revitalizing downtown Ravenswood as one of their main goals as outlined in Ravenswood's Comprehensive Plan. They realized that Downtowns are more than just a collection of retail, commercial, personal service, and employment centers. Downtowns are what people associate with the essence of a town and a rallying point for communities. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, the traditional downtown started to diminish as people preferred chain retail stores along highways. However, in the past two decades, many places have seen a resurgence in downtowns as the trend reverses and customers are favoring small, independent retail experiences where it is easy to stroll about and enjoy each other’s company.
This movement back towards main streets and downtowns matters because it provides an economic opportunity for communities like Ravenswood. Specifically, it matters to the marketability of Ravenswood. It matters in creating an active and vibrant downtown to attract and retain talented people and companies. It matters in expanding economic opportunities for small, local businesses. And it matters in creating a unique Ravenswood culture where residents are a community.
The long-term vision for downtown depicts four goals—a downtown that is: • active and vibrant, • the focus of community life, • contains significant places and events, and • maintains a strong link to the past. With these goals in mind, the city hired their first part-time Executive Director, Molly Washburn, to lead the creation of that vision and to implement it. She started by gathering community volunteers willing to donate their time and expertise to the downtown revitalization movement. Now, that group is steadily making progress in our downtown area, with more positive changes still to come.
