Main Street Baldwin City

The resurgence of the city’s downtown has been in the making for years and is now augmented by its inclusion in the Kansas Main Street project.

High Street in Baldwin City

Is the resurgence of “main street” business the result of being one of three towns in the state to be designated for the Kansas Main Street project? Or was Baldwin City awarded the designation because of its downtown rebirth? Which came first?

All indications point to the latter. While it was announced just in March that Baldwin City had joined Atchison and Junction City as Kansas Main Street communities, which entitle those communities to state-funded grants and consulting services, the renaissance of the downtown area has been years in the making.

Venerable businesses like Baldwin State Bank, founded in 1892, and 32-year-old Quilters’ Paradise anchor the square, but look around. What once was a line of vacant, hollowed-out buildings now is a collection of burgeoning businesses.

Across the street from the bank is the Lumberyard Arts Center, a multipurpose space that houses an art gallery as well as a boutique and performance and class spaces. Down the street are buzzing businesses like JAW Bats, a one-man shop that creates custom-made baseball bats for customers worldwide, and Antiques on the Prairie, which rents space to antique dealers and much more. On the other side of the street are established businesses like Gregg Bruce Auto & Performance, Pitts Photography and Baldwin Academy of Dance and Voice, and new ventures like Nutrition Uncorked, which specializes in protein shakes, herbal teas and other nutritious beverages.

Corner of 8th and high Street 1908-1912 | 8th and High Street — Photos courtesy of Baker University Old Castle Museum

There are trendy restaurants and gathering places, like Homestead Kitchen & Bakery, 8th Street Burger Shop, El Patron and The Nook, fitness centers and the usual dotting of law offices, insurance firms and hair salons. It’s the kind of brimming metropolis that would garner attention as far away as state government, which it did when Baldwin City applied for the Kansas Main Street designation last year.

“Downtown is probably as active during the day now as it’s been since the 1980s,” says Bryan Butell, president of Baldwin State Bank since 2014. “There are no vacancies. Honestly, I’d say we’re kind of thriving.”

The downtown area, which the Kansas Main Street program designated as High Street from Sixth Street to Ninth Street, the 800 block of Seventh Street and the 700 and 800 blocks of Eighth Street, promises to continue thriving and even boom more with the financial and consulting help of the state program.

Lynn Hughes, Baldwin City communications director, says the Chamber of Commerce is organizing committees to work on four areas of emphasis in the Main Street program: organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.

“We’re starting the restructuring process now,” she explains. “The committees should be up and running no later than fall, hopefully by summer.”

Director Jeannette Black inside the Lumberyard Arts Center

Surviving COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic left the world in shambles during the last year-plus, and there aren’t many companies, no matter how big or small, that were left unfazed. The Lumberyard Art Center, at the corner of Eighth and High streets, was preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2020. Much of 2019 was spent planning a big masquerade ball and soiree.

But as the Center’s executive director, Jeannette Blackmar, says, “Art galleries were typically first to close, last to reopen (because of the pandemic).” Not only did the Center’s art shows, classes and performances come to a halt, there also were no facility rentals.

“2020 was a story of adaptability,” she continues. “We had to assess how to remain relevant. What do we do?”

What Lumberyard Arts Center did was create a face mask program where volunteers were provided materials to manufacture face masks for citizens of Baldwin City. With the help of funding from the CARES Act, more than 80 volunteers made 14,000-plus face masks for the community.

“It enabled us to generate donations and remain visible in the community,” Blackmar says. “It became a source of pride.”

The Arts Center has resumed public hours while maintaining social distancing and masking, and plans to conduct normal summer classes with reduced capacity.

Owner Jacob Walters making customized bats at his JAW Bats shop

A few doors down from Lumberyard—and around through an alley backdoor—JAW Bats experienced no drop-off in work because of COVID. Now beginning the ninth year of his company, owner and bat maker Jacob Walters custom-produced more than 2,000 baseball bats, starting at $190 per unit, last year. What began as a natural extension of his love of woodworking and sports (Walters played collegiate baseball at Neosho County Community College) today is a business that sells bats from youth all the way up to the professional ranks across the United States and 30 other countries.

Walters says he thrives by concentrating on the youth baseball market, which gets neglected by larger bat makers, and also with a large social media campaign.

“I was just young and dumb, and enjoyed doing it,” he says of starting the company back in 2012. “There’s a growing demand for the product. This year, I want to do two to three times what we’ve been doing.”

Early on in the 21st century, around the time of the 9/11 attacks, Stan Vickers, an ex-farmer from eastern Kansas, had an idea of making informational DVDs on small towns in the state. He chose Baldwin City to shoot his first demo, and that’s how he discovered, and eventually bought, the building that today houses Antiques on the Prairie.

“Baldwin City was the only city I ever shot,” Vickers says. “I found this building shooting a demo of the city; less than eight months later, I was buying the building.”

On the east side of the building, Vickers installed industrial kitchen equipment. That space serves as an incubator for aspiring new businesses and also as a space for special events like barbeques and pie cook-offs. The rest of the building he rents to antique dealers.

“When I got into the business, (antique selling) was on a downhill trend,” he says. “It was a battle. But I started learning more about antique malls and was able to set up the format I wanted.”

Vickers has since sold half the business to a local couple, Bill and Nancy Lytle.

“It’s been a fun, fun thing to do,” says Vickers, 70. “But I’m getting ready to retire.”

Niki Manbeck, owner of The Nook

Eats and Drinks

Since its opening nearly five years ago, Homestead Kitchen & Bakery, which serves breakfast, lunch and light take-home dinners, has become a stalwart of the downtown food-service industry. The offerings for Eighth Street foodies doubled last November when Homestead gained a figurative sibling in 8th Street Burger Shop.

It seems Homestead was doing such good business that owners Lori and Kelly Gardner decided they needed to expand. That decision was made easier when the space next door became available. It also gave the Gardners two storefronts, so 8th Street Burger Shop was created. It offers a variety of burgers, hot dogs, chili and an ice cream counter that serves shakes and cones.

“We typically see 15 to 20 (customers) at a time,” Kelly Gardner says. “Thus far, probably 75 percent of our business is takeout.”

A few doors to the north, in a house that used to house a pharmacy, sits The Nook, a combination bookshop/bar/coffee shop owned by local entrepreneur Niki Manbeck. Not only is it a welcoming place for folks to grab a beer or mixed drink, or cup of coffee and a muffin (the coffee shop is actually run by Jitters, which has another location in town), but it’s also where Manbeck runs her publishing company, Imperium Publishing, the only publisher of books in Kansas.

“When I moved here three years ago, I found there was no bookstore,” she explains. “I was working out of my home, but I wanted a place downtown.

“With this space, there’s so much room to grow. We can only get better.”

Manbeck says small, independent bookstores have thrived recently as the pandemic has brought people together. She also isn’t stopping at The Nook. This summer, she hopes to open a sports bar she plans on naming The Bullpen in the old police station on Eighth.

“I wanted to make downtown a destination,” she says. “We’re headed in the right direction.”

Brenna Riley, owner of Nutrition Uncorked

Downtown Baldwin City also appears to be getting healthy. Back in August, Brenna Riley opened Nutrition Uncorked, a healthy nutrition bar that offers protein shakes, herbal teas and iced coffees. Riley previously worked for a similar establishment in Lawrence and decided she wanted her own like business in her hometown.

“Everything here is low in calories, low in sugar, low in carbs,” she says. “Nutrition clubs are very popular now, even in small towns. Everyone wants healthier options.

“We have a great market with Baker students. Business has been really good. We’ve formed a lot of great partnerships with fraternities and sororities, helping with fund-raisers.”

Even more recently, another healthy option has surfaced in Sunflower Juice & Fitness, near Baldwin City Fitness on High Street.

Witnessing Change Firsthand

As owner of Quilters’ Paradise the past 32 years, Sharon Vesecky has seen up close all the ups and downs of Baldwin City’s downtown evolution. What she sees today is a rural core on the upswing.

“There were a few years we had a lot of vacant buildings up and down the street,” she says, “but they seem to be filling up.”

The increased traffic has been good for her business, Vesecky says. While she doesn’t sell too many completed quilts, she does sell a lot of the material used to make quilts. “Most people who shop for quilts don’t understand that they don’t cost $29.95,” she quips. She also offers machine-quilting services to assist customers in making their own quilts.

It’s enough business to keep Vesecky coming in each weekday morning with the can-do and community attitude shared by all of her fellow business owners on “Main Street” Baldwin City.

“I’ll keep going till I can’t,” she says. “If I didn’t come here, what else would I do with my day?”