The City of Hartsville recently welcomed city leaders and Main Street practitioners from across the country for Main Street America’s 2025 Community Transformation Workshop, showing how a small city can spark big change by layering local partnerships, assets and supporting entrepreneurs.
The Community Transformation Workshop, Main Street America’s flagship training, gives leaders hands-on experience in a living downtown. Host communities become classrooms, demonstrating how strategic planning — not simply one-off projects — creates momentum and lasting impact.
Attendees practiced using market analysis, community feedback, and local data to guide their own Main Street programs, a process highlighted in Main Street America’s 2024 Art of Market Analysis article series, available on their website. The three-part series emphasized how districts can interpret data, identify targeted strategies and translate insights into actionable annual downtown revitalization work plans. Doing so can help downtown development directors track and achieve measurable results.
In Hartsville, the workshop participants toured the downtown district and met small business owners and local leaders, including representatives from Hartsville’s Coker University. They observed how multiple strategies — higher education partnerships and cultural district activation – work together to support downtown vitality.
“This workshop illustrates how to develop transformation strategies using both quantitative data and qualitative insight. Communities that analyze their markets carefully, test strategies and adjust based on results build momentum that lasts beyond a single initiative,” Tasha Sams, Main Street America’s director of education, said.
“Hosting the Community Transformation Workshop gave us a chance to see our downtown through new eyes,” said Michelle Byers Brown, Hartsville’s director of tourism, communications & Main Street Hartsville. “The ideas shared helped us refine how we’re putting our current strategies into action, turning vision into practical steps that will keep Hartsville’s Main Street [program and downtown district] thriving.”
Hartsville’s historic commercial district successes demonstrate what is possible across South Carolina. Small cities and rural communities can thrive by leaning into authenticity, creativity and collaboration. Market analysis helps to identify local needs, opportunities and strengths to inform strategic decision-making, ensuring that every investment — whether time, money or talent — is aligned with long-term goals.
“Every South Carolina downtown has unique assets,” said Jenny Boulware, manager of Main Street South Carolina. “Hartsville shows that focused, sustained Main Street work, paired with strategy and teamwork, produces real results. Transformation isn’t a milestone; it’s a continuous journey powered locally through partnerships and persistence.”
A transformation strategy isn’t a one-and-done plan. It evolves as communities grow, priorities shift, and new opportunities emerge. Often, it starts small — testing ideas that build momentum and confidence over time — and relies on data-informed adjustments, a practice strongly emphasized in the Art of Market Analysis series. By combining local insight with market understanding, communities can make informed, actionable decisions that move their downtowns forward.
“Main Street work is never finished, it grows with our community,” Byers Brown said. “The workshop reminded us that transformation isn’t an endpoint; it’s part of our everyday rhythm in Hartsville.”