August 28, 2025

Grants Support Legacy Restaurants

Stephen Reeve runs New York Cafe in Ketchikan, Alaska — the state’s longest operating restaurant. It was built more than 120 years ago by adventurer Tony Ohashi.

This legacy business received funds from the Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant program in 2024. Grant funds were used to restore the restaurant’s facade and document its 120 year history, reports Downtown Idea Exchange newsletter.

Backing Historic Small Restaurants is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is supported by American Express. The program helps small and independent restaurants preserve their histories while celebrating their cuisine and supporting the local economies.

In 2024, 50 small restaurants each received $50,000 grants. Many of the 2024 grant recipients included businesses that are family owned or have been operating for generations.

Applications for the next round of grants will open in May 2026.

More on supporting local downtown businesses appears regularly in the pages of Downtown Idea Exchange newsletter.

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Recommended Reading

Cities and Nature: A Handbook for Renewal

Cities and towns across the United States are working to restore nature and increase green space as a means to improve quality of life, enhance economic conditions, and combat climate change.

In Cities and Nature, editor Roger Kemp has collected some of the best information available on what he has termed the "back-to-nature" movement in downtown revitalization.

The articles and case studies illustrate the work of communities across the country in four major areas: creating, protecting, preserving, and restoring the natural environment. The articles and case studies include:

• The economic benefits of parks and open space
• Lessons in creating urban parks on existing public facilities
• Hartford, CT, revives its downtown riverfront
• Lafayette, IN, uses public plazas to revive main streets
• Petaluma, CA, reorients its downtown around a river
• San Francisco, CA, transforms an industrial site into open space and trails
• Silver Spring, MD, turns old railroad corridors into public trails
• West Des Moines, IA, turns a floodplain into a regional park and open space.

The case studies offer a wide range of ideas and inspiration while sharing a commitment to an urban environment enhanced by nature.

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Cities and Nature is just one of the many books on Downtown Economic Development available from the Downtown Development Center.