Mia Ferraro
UMD Class of 2026

(10/20/2023) It has been almost 20 years since the start of the Thurmont Main Street program, and 2023 marks the 10th year since Vickie Grinder, Thurmont Main Street’s first manager and one of the program’s founders, returned to the program as Economic Development Manager.

Thurmont has been a designated Maryland Main Street community since 2005. Maryland Main Street is the statewide program out of Main Street America. The program is an economic development effort to revitalize the downtown area by filling empty storefronts and providing resources and funding to support existing and new businesses.

In 2002, Grinder, John Kinnaird and Bill Blakeslee came together as volunteers to propose the idea of applying for a Main Street designation. The application was approved three years later, making Thurmont one of the first towns in the state to receive a designation upon its first and only application.

It was in 2017 when Grinder committed to the program full time, however, that "the action really started to happen," according to Grinder. Just in the past five years, over 27 businesses have received facade grants, which totals to over half a million dollars in private investment funds from the Department of Community Housing and Development. The grants fund renovations for buildings in the Main Street area. "It’s contagious," Grinder says. "Somebody sees someone fixing up their building, then they’ll go fix up their building."

The popularity of Main Streets has fluctuated since the national program’s founding. They were a significant source of commerce before malls appeared on the scene. Now a large amount of shopping is done online. "There’s been a lot of culture changes over the years with the way people shop, and the services that they expect," Grinder says. "It's become very difficult for smaller towns to attract any type of retail, simply because a lot of the retail now, you can do it from your home online."

But Grinder feels there is a large support group in the community for Thurmont businesses. "We are very fortunate in Thurmont that we have a lot of local people that truly shop local and eat local." Another factor in the businesses’ success is the number of services that make up most of Main Street, according to Grinder, because "more than likely, you won’t go online for a service." She also credits the Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park for attracting tourists to Thurmont. "That’s our asset: our outdoor recreation," she says.

Thurmont Main Street has opened over 50 businesses since its debut. There’s a lot more to bringing new businesses to town than filling empty storefronts. "They just don’t tell someone ‘Hey come to town, Thurmont’s a great town,’" one of Thurmont Main Street’s founders Commissioner Bill Blakeslee says, referring to the Economic Development staff. "They walk them through the process of becoming organized and legitimate here in town."

The Main Street program connects people looking to start a business in town with the Small Business Development Center of Maryland (SBDC). The SBDC offers several free services such as assisting prospective business owners with writing out a business plan, matching them with lenders and providing accounting counsel. Thurmont Main Street program also frequently holds seminars from members from the Small Business Administration (SBA) as well as the SBDC. "We don’t want a business to come and think they have to just hang the sign out," Grinder says. "No, there’s more to running your business than that, and we try to help them along the way, because we want them to succeed. If they don’t succeed, we’re not succeeding."

Thurmont Main Street runs eight annual events. The Art & Wine Stroll is one of Grinder’s favorite events, which she calls the "best party in Northern Frederick County." It is an event where anyone can walk through the downtown area enjoying art and live music from local artists, eating from food trucks, sampling wine and beer from local wineries and distilleries, and browsing displays from Main Street shops. The Stroll is volunteer-run.

"We have a great core volunteer base of all ages," Grinder notes. She points out that there are times when she’s able to decline offers for extra help because there are already enough volunteers. Grinder recognizes one volunteer in particular, Missy Grimes, as an asset in organizing the Art & Wine Stroll.

Grinder considers her favorite aspect of her job to be the camaraderie of the Main Street businesses. "They start out as businesses, then they become acquaintances, and the camaraderie and the friendships are just… that’s the best part of the job," she says. "And they say, you know, if you love what you do you never work a day in your life… and there’s probably never been a truer statement ever said."

Grinder has watched the town and the program transform in the past 10 years. Among the notable improvements Grinder points out is the amount of grant funding the program receives today, the number of collaborations with nonprofit organizations, and the ease at which the program is able to fill empty storefronts. She also notes the change in the town’s appearance. "It’s still that beautiful Main Street sitting at the foothill of the Catoctin Mountains, and there’s nothing more beautiful than coming up East Main Street and looking at those mountains right there in front of you." But Grinder feels the program has "enhanced" its beauty, she says. "Thurmont is, at heart, still a small town that is trying to aesthetically preserve the core of what a Main Street should be."

Looking back, is there anything Grinder would have done differently in the program? "No," Grinder laughs at the question. "We were in uncharted waters then and now we’re really in uncharted waters today because every day’s new and exciting."

Grinder feels that the arrival of new businesses like 10Tavern, a restaurant that opened in July, and Studio 24E, a retail establishment that opened in June, will change the landscape for the future of Thurmont, and perhaps will attract a new outfitter. Blakeslee’s vision for Thurmont involves filling the vacant storefronts in the Thurmont Plaza Shopping Center, where CVS is located, with thriving businesses.

"It’s amazing that 20 years have passed, and John’s the mayor now and I’m a commissioner again, and Vickie’s the Economic Development Director," Blakeslee says. "So it's amazing that we’re all there to support Vickie and work towards the same goals as far as the businesses in town go, and that’s what our aim was 20 years ago, and here we are. We’re still here."