Tag: Princeton Renaissance Project

Mercer County Celebration Hopes to Take Visitors “Back to the Future”

A freelance journalist is looking for folks to share stories about the heydays of downtown Princeton in Mercer County. The project launches during an annual street festival meant to “Celebrate Princeton”.

Organizers of the 9th Annual Celebrate Princeton street fair are hoping to mark a turning point for this year’s festival.

After hosting the Mercer County event for years, the Princeton Public Library reached out to volunteers with The Princeton Renaissance Project, which is working to revitalize downtown by restoring a theatre, and hosting events on Mercer Street.

The Carpenter Ants are expected to perform at the festival.

A large part of celebrating the past at this year’s festival will come with the launch of “Memories of MercerStreet,” an oral history project. Freelance journalist Scott Noble is looking for folks to share stories about the heydays of downtown. Noble will be setup with a camera throughout the day at the festival. The footage will be housed in Princeton Public Library’s video archive. 

Other attractions include carnival rides, bounce houses, face painting, an art show, apple pie baking contest, car show, live music, and more.

The day will conclude with the movie “Back to the Future” in the park.

The band Distraction is expected to perform at this year’s festival.

The festival is this Saturday, June 28th from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. on Mercer Street and downtown Princeton in Mercer County.  All events are free and open to the public.

Food, art and many other items will be available for purchase. The street will be closed to traffic. For more information on any of these events including a schedule, call 304-425-6425. 

'There Is a Change in the Air' in This Southern W.Va. Town

A town in Southern West Virginia is rolling up its sleeves to revitalize downtown. The goal is to turn the main street in Princeton into a safe place to socialize, shop, and grow. Residents basically decided to stop complaining about the rundown reality, and do something to change it.

The Princeton Renaissance Project began about six months ago. It’s a vision to create an attractive economically vibrant downtown. Most of the work is focused on Mercer Street, an area with a reputation for drug trafficking and prostitution. Those projects include:

  • Festivals and events: The crew at the Riff Raff Arts Collective, a gallery on Mercer Street in Princeton organized and hosted the Altogether Arts Week for the past five years. The event includes a parade, sidewalk painting, and more. Volunteers with the project have also organized outdoor movie viewings, and in October, tricks or treat on Mercer Street.
  • Restoring the historic Lavon Theater
  • The Princeton Community Improvement Commission created a grant program to help renovate storefronts. Businesses can apply for up to $2,000 for storefront renovation.
  • Relocating Princeton City Hall from the corner of Courthouse Road to the former First Community Bank building on Mercer Street.
  • Artist Alley: The project blocked off more than 20 spaces on two walls separated by a narrow strip of rough pavement. Any artist was able to cover a section of the wall with a masterpiece. After a few final touches the alley will be a 24 hour outdoor art gallery.
  • Circle time: business owners, non-profit representatives, citizens, and sometimes the city manager meet once a week to discuss new ideas to make the Princeton Renaissance a success
  • Eight paid mural artists to help cover some buildings

“It’s pretty cool because I’ve been wanting to paint this town for years and years and years,” Patch Whisky, one of the paid artists helping spruce up Mercer Street.

“I was wanting to paint that building five years ago when I was trying to open up an art gallery downtown here,” Whisky said. “They wouldn’t let me do it for free. Now they’ve had to pay somebody a lot of money to paint whatever they’re painting on there right now. But it’s definitely changed.”

“There is a change in the air.”

Wisky’s work can be found across the east coast in cities like Charleston South Carolina, Miami Florida and now his hometown Princeton.

“The whole idea is to give people a good reason to come back down to Mercer Street,” Sam Franz said during a circle time meeting. “Lots of fun. I’m surprised at how eager all the local businesses are to get out and help us with this.”

“We’ve got the arts, and we have education, government, non-profit and just the regular folks all pulling together,” new city manager Elke Doom said, “to bring us back to I can’t say the old glory, but a whole new Mercer Street.”

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