Come Alive

More than a decade of careful planning and hard work have paid off for downtown Ruston

article by MICHAEL DEVAULT | photography by MARTIN G MEYERS

Stroll the wide, new sidewalks between popping into a boutique for the latest styles and grabbing lunch at a hip, new restaurant. Pause near the park and enjoy the sounds of a live band set up for an outdoor art event. Or maybe just swing through to take in a show at the historic Dixie Theatre.

If you haven’t been downtown in Ruston, lately, these are just a few of the kinds of experiences you’ve missed out on. For the last twelve years or so, businesses located in downtown Ruston have been driving a revitalization effort unmatched in the Bayou State, and now that work is beginning to pay off. Melissa Durrett knows why.
“There’s just something about downtown Ruston that feels special, the buzz down here,” Melissa says. “We spent two years looking for space to find the right one.”

The “right one” turned out to be a long-abandoned retail building sandwiched into the 200 block of North Vienna, between the Dixie Theatre and Utility Brewing Company. After much consideration, Durrett’s husband and his brother, B.J. and Andy, purchased the building and began a painstaking restoration. The result was a year in the making – a centerpiece for the 200 block of Vienna that has quickly become an attraction in its own right, which Durrett finds amusing.

“Most people don’t get excited to come see a law office, but that’s what’s happened,” she says. “To take an eyesore of a building and transform it into something that’s beautiful, that’s something special. People come by all the time to see the space, to find inspiration and to get ideas for how they can do what we’ve done.”
Up the way and over a bit – it’s a small town, and that’s how directions are given – is The Fashion, one of the grand dames of downtown Ruston. First opened in 1955, The Fashion is a clothing store specializing in on-trend apparel and accessories for ladies and women. Over its 60 year history, the store has become a stalwart of the Ruston shopping experience.

When Kelly Hogan purchased the store 14 years ago, she knew it would soon be time to relocate from the aging facility into a more modern, inviting, and better-positioned space. When the time came four years ago, Hogan chose a location on Park Avenue, near Roma Bistro. The thought of moving to one of the new shopping centers along I-20 didn’t cross her mind.

“I never once considered leaving downtown Ruston,” she says. “I’m crazy passionate about our downtown because, honestly, I’ve lived other places and have seen what it could be. It was easy for us to recognize the potential here.”

Also, she wasn’t much worried about relocating downtown because demand for real estate is so high she knew moving wouldn’t create a void in the market. “I knew someone would come fill our original space, and so I took a risk a block over.”

The risk paid off. Today, The Fashion shares a smartly restored building with Chartreuse Pear, a company that sells gifts and home décor. The interior spaces are sleek, cool and crisply modern, just the kinds of boutique spaces you’d find in a much larger community. That even a single space such as this exists in a town the size of Ruston would be remarkable, were it not for the presence of dozens more, just like it.

Hogan thinks she knows what attracts people to downtown Ruston in particular, and it’s a bit convenience, a bit nostalgia and a whole lot of unique. Community support plays a huge role in the success or failure of any retail district, and in Ruston, that support goes both ways.

“We’re involved in these peoples’ lives. It’s not just selling clothes,” Hogan says. “We’re consoling them when they lose a family member, looking at baby pictures when they have a grandchild. We really feel that connection, and I don’t get that feeling in a strip mall.”

David Hedgepeth enjoys a slightly more circumspect vision of downtown’s development – its history and its future. He started his career more than thirty years ago, as an interior designer in downtown Ruston, working for Rogers Furniture, a family-owned furniture store. Situated on the corner of Trenton and Mississippi streets, the Rogers Furniture building is one of the more prominent storefronts in the retail district. When Rogers Furniture closed three years ago, Hedgepeth and his partner, Julie Mays, opened their own store in the space. It is from this corner Hedgepeth has watched Ruston grow and blossom into a thriving, hip retail and lifestyles destination.

“We’ve always been a really strong downtown because there has always been a lot of smaller shops,” Hedgepeth says. “You get a lot of personal service, and there’s more of a boutique shop feel downtown – more so now than even a couple of years ago.”

That boutique feel is what draws shoppers into the area. Extra-wide, pedestrian-friendly streets invite strolling from shop to shop. Restaurants and coffee shops place tables on the sidewalk, lending a continental feel to the area. Hedgepeth says there’s something for everyone in the area.

In addition to owning a business downtown, Hedgepeth has been involved in the planning and development efforts for the retail and business district. In addition to working with the Downtown Merchants Association and Main Street, Hedgepeth served on the Ruston City Council, a position that gave him a bit more perspective on the importance of cooperation and community support. It also afforded him the opportunity to see how other towns and cities had faired.

“If you go to a lot of larger cities, Jackson, Dallas, Baton Rouge, they have big malls with national retailers,” he says. “But those concepts are dying away. What developers are doing now is building shopping centers that look like a downtown – with unique architecture, wide sidewalks, outdoor dining – the kind of place where you can park and walk from store to store.”

In other words, what they’re doing in big cities is copying exactly what already exists Ruston. Though downtown lacks big anchor stores, it’s filled with unique shops and local people running local businesses for a local clientele.

Urban planning has also played a role in the continued health of downtown. In other towns and cities, when major highway developments came through, the practice was to route traffic around downtowns to the outskirts, to spur development there. The result was catastrophic for so many downtown regions, because that traffic is what drove commerce. Ruston avoided that. Drive from Alexandria to El Dorado on Highway 167, and you’ll pass right through downtown Ruston and its timeless charm.

Ruston has an additional resource driving business downtown: a nationally recognized university sits just blocks away. The city government, Louisiana Tech administrators and merchants all recognized the potential the campus represented, so they’ve worked together for decades to strengthen the ties between downtown and the campus, both figuratively and literally.

Not only has Louisiana Tech been an active supporter of the downtown development efforts through sponsoring and hosting events, it’s also worked to connect its campus to the downtown district physically, with a broad, well-kept greenway. When Tech decided it wanted to further strengthen ties, it opened Tech Park, a business-university partnership situated between campus and downtown.

The result has been the creation of a truly special downtown environment, one where people come to hang out with friends, shop for school clothes or just grab lunch. Though this is the result of years of planning and effort, it’s nevertheless a singular achievement.

“You don’t usually see that in a little town like this,” Durrett says. Moreover, it’s an achievement that’s not finished. “Everybody’s looking for a space in these old, forgotten buildings. They’re looking for a place to move into, remodel and save.”

To that end, the Downtown Merchants Association, Main Street, and other groups are actively involved in recruiting new businesses into the area. Also, they work with the community at large, both individuals and community organizations, to develop events that bring people downtown. Planning and development meetings take place at least monthly, sometimes more frequently, as often as it takes to help hone the vision for downtown Ruston.

“It’s not for the betterment of one business or one space,” Durrett says. “It’s for the entire community, to try to make people want to come downtown and shop, to park, spend the day and just want to be downtown.”
Their efforts have drawn wide recognition, as well. The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation awarded downtown Ruston the 2018 Main Street award for its efforts to preserve and beautify downtown. It’s recognition for the building of a community of businesses, artisans and customers. And it’s also something that’s driving new generations of loyal clientele to the area.

Hogan suggests people who haven’t been to Ruston in a few years take the time to make the trip. It’s definitely something she believes is worth the effort to see and experience. Just park your car and take a stroll.

“You get that vision of people being out, sweeping their sidewalks off in the morning,” she says. “It’s more than just shoping. It’s living and being in a town.”