Downtown important
When I think of things that happened during my earlier times in Tehachapi, I’m starting to think of them as the “olden days.”
I remember, for instance, a time in the seventies when a speaker came to a Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce meeting and suggested that downtown Tehachapi needed a facelift.
Of course, to put that in perspective, one needs to know that downtown Tehachapi got a facelift about 20 years earlier, following the 1952 earthquake. Despite the recent interest in “mid-century architecture,” though, there wasn’t very much special or interesting about the look of the buildings put up as quickly as possible following the earthquake.
So by the mid-seventies, as the visitor noted, downtown Tehachapi needed a fresh new look to attract customers.
Perhaps I should mention that the speaker represented a company that did commercial building facades — a “Music Man” of downtown renovation with a horse in the race, so to speak, but this didn’t make his message any less true.
And to their credit, the merchants of downtown Tehachapi jumped on board and soon we had a new look, complete with under-grounding of unsightly utility lines in the alley behind the old News office (now Tehachapi Flower Shop). It wasn’t quite as nice as Centennial Plaza, but when Koutroulis’ Department Store made a rear entrance onto the nicely paved alleyway, absent the power poles, and the Squires Building — where the movie theater is now — put on a new façade, we were all very proud of our new downtown. Even Tehachapi Lumber — thriving at the time under the direction of the Small family — got a fresh new look, right about the time we started calling “G” Street Tehachapi Boulevard.
The Tehachapi Heritage League formed about that time, eventually opening up a small museum in an old land office building — around that same time the county planned a new library (since replaced) that cleared the way for the museum to move to its current location.
Downtown looked great, we thought —iff only we could get the Beekay Theatre reopened and get Southern Pacific to let us use the old train depot as a museum, a dream that took decades more to accomplish.
Downtowns are important to communities, so important that the National Trust for Historic Preservation some years ago organized its “Main Street” program to help keep downtowns vital. Main Street Tehachapi was developed with the same structure to try to resurrect downtown Tehachapi after the loss of some key businesses.
It takes more than fresh paint to keep a downtown thriving — it takes activity. It is heart-breaking to me that Tehachapi lost its downtown Post Office. And although it’s hard to say at this point what will happen to Tehachapi Hospital, it seems obvious that one way or another downtown will take another hit when the hospital is either closed or replaced.
Elsewhere in this week’s paper you’ll read of the closing of Tehachapi Lumber — as the “going out of business sale” ad notes, the store has been an Ace Hardware affiliate for 52 years — as you’ll read in Jon Hammond’s story, the “lumber company” as its long been called dates back more than a century.
The recession and changes in how people shop are making it harder than ever for small business, especially retailers, to stay afloat, and if we want to keep a charming downtown, we have to work at it.
Main Street Tehachapi sponsored a well-attended mixer last week.
The organization has gone back to its volunteer roots and is seeking to fill slots on its Board of Directors.
The City of Tehachapi and Main Street have worked together on infrastructure improvements downtown — beautiful murals, signs, a park and a plaza — but there is no longer funding for a full-time Main Street executive director and its going to be up to business and property owners and other volunteers who believe downtown Tehachapi is important to our quality of life to step up and continue to work the programs, particularly working to retain and recruit businesses.
Downtown Tehachapi has gone up — and down — in the past. I still think it is the heart of Tehachapi and worth working to keep. Watch the Tehachapi News for ways that you can get involved.
CLAUDIA ELLIOTT is editor of the Tehachapi News. Send email to: editor@tehachapinews.com or call 823-6360.
