Welcome to Downtown Danville, the Vibrant Small Town You Never Expected

With a brew pub, a chic giftware store, a tea gallery, and plenty of foot traffic, it would be easy to think you're in a quaint college town or a magnet neighborhood for the under-30 crowd. But in reality,  you're in Danville, a tiny (population 4,897) blink-and-you'll-miss-it town located in Pennsylvania's smallest county (Montour).

Just three years ago, Danville, once famous for its coal and iron manufacturing, was just another post-industrial small town with a sleepy central business district. The process of injecting new life into it got rolling when the  Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) certified Danville as a Main Street community. This designation made it possible for Danville to receive grant funding over a five-year period to the tune of $265,000. The town wasted no time putting the money to good use, establishing the Danville Business Alliance (DBA), an organization working to revitalize Danville's downtown, in 2004.

Leading the effort that is now in its third year is Danville Business Alliance Executive Director and Main Street Manager Jim Wilson, a former senior attorney for the Army and Danville transplant.

"When I moved to the area five years ago, the downtown had many vacant storefronts and a much more run down appearance," Wilson recalls. "Though Danville had attempted downtown revitalization in the past, the DBA believed there was a much greater likelihood of success by building a better business climate and utilizing the kind of external assistance offered by DCED."

Today, the DBA boasts 90 member businesses and an ever-growing list of accomplishments that include a downtown store vacancy rate that is below 5 percent; the decision by Geisinger Health System, the town's biggest employer, to erect a new office building downtown; those more than one dozen new businesses, an eclectic mix of outlets; and the transfer and creation of approximately 150 new jobs in the downtown area.

In addition to sparking the creation of new businesses, a second pillar of the Main Street Program has been a façade program to help downtown Danville business and property owners finance improvements to their buildings' exteriors. Now in its third of four years, the program extends dollar-for-dollar grants of up to $5,000 per storefront to eligible building owners or renters that agree to abide by a set of design guidelines that preserve the history and character of Danville's architecture. So far, ten projects have been completed, and the level of interest remains high. "We're expecting even more applications this year," Wilson says. "What's more, some building owners have even applied to do more than one project."

While the state remains the main impetus behind Danville's revitalization, another boost came from 12 Penn State University landscape architecture students and their dedicated professor, Dr. Caru Bowns. As part of the students' design studio project, they met with Danville residents in monthly meetings from September 2008 to April 2009 to craft a master plan for the downtown. From the get-go, the effort was collaborative. "We sent out postcard surveys, gave workshops, and met regularly with residents," says Dr. Bowns, a professor of landscape architecture at Penn State.

The two-semester project proved to be popular, with Danville residents becoming vested in the plan. "The students presented their findings during forums that allowed for verbal feedback," says Dr. Bowns. "Danville residents appreciated the democratic participation, and many said they felt open to the discussions because we were a disinterested party."

In the end, the exchange of ideas resulted in a Downtown Master Plan whose highlights include an enhanced downtown streetscape, improved landscaping at major gateways into the town, the creation of a centrally-located park, and new downtown signage. The students also collaborated with SEDA-Council of Governments (SEDA-COG) regional planners to offer design ideas for Danville's riverfront and segment of the North Branch Canal Trail, the land abutting the Susquehanna River. The ideas included creating hiking and biking trails; increasing retail activity; and establishing a multi-sports complex, a gazebo for outdoor concerts, and a mixed-use building. Since the community-informed master planning for revitalization, the town has been in an implementation phase for the past two years. For her part, Dr. Bowns has continued to stay involved by spearheading a Penn State-funded research study that is investigating the potential for economic development of upper story units in downtown Danville's buildings.

Another key component of Danville's revitalization efforts is the push to develop a downtown arts district. The first step in that direction has been the unveiling of a multiyear mural program that will beautify Danville's Mill Street with half a dozen new building murals. Local artists from the town's burgeoning arts community and area college students have been invited to work their magic, so long as they follow one directive: "To one degree or another, all murals should touch on Danville's heritage and history," says Wilson.  The first mural, 1,200 square feet and on the side of a building that greets visitors to Danville, does just that by projecting an image of three people admiring the Susquehanna River Valley and the town's cherished riverfront.

It seems in Danville, each stride forward begets another. Wilson reports that the DBA, along with the Greater Susquehanna Keystone Innovation Zone, recently succeeded in having Danville's bustling Main Street district designated a Keystone Innovation Zone. This designation will allow the town to vie for state grants that will generate tech jobs and fund entrepreneurs. "Right now, we are working to identify a site for a downtown startup incubator," says Wilson. "We want to do everything we can to create a lively, diverse, and vibrant downtown."

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Amanda Prischak is an Erie-based freelance writer and part-time cheesemonger. She encourages everyone to visit the Gem City, so long as lake-effect snow's not doing its thing. Send feedback here.

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