LEBANON’S HISTORICAL DOWNTOWN

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To boost business, Lebanon uses its historic charm. Now we want yours. Grow with us! Historic. Heart. Vitality.

The historic Lebanon Main Street district has increased the number of new businesses, events and jobs in response to market demand and realized a 4:1 return on city, state and federally funded downtown investments. Improvements offer greater opportunities for business growth and expansion, and property owners are seeing improved marketability of their property and increased market values.

Lebanon, the county seat, is known for its historic Public Square, formed in 1802 over the Town Spring. Since its founding, the Public Square has been a center of commerce and community for Wilson County and the city of Lebanon. The square has been shaped by several fires, which destroyed whole blocks of the original buildings. Most of the structures today date from the late 1880s to the 1930s.

Lebanon’s square has hosted speeches and political events staged by luminaries, such as William Jennings Bryan, Frank G. Clement and Sam Houston. It’s been the site of military parades with General Patton and his Second Armored Division during the WWII maneuvers headquartered at Cumberland University. First Monday Mule Day sales were a monthly event on the square until 1939. Four county courthouses have called the square home, including the third version designed in 1848 by William Strickland, architect of the Tennessee State Capitol building. And perhaps, most importantly, from the days of its earliest stores and “ordinarys,” the square has been the home of numerous businesses. In 1803, a quarter century before being elected President, Andrew Jackson owned a store on the Public Square. Lebanon’s square was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic Commercial District in 1999. In the fall of 2013, Lebanon was accepted into the Tennessee Main Street Program. Today’s square is a vibrant spot for shopping, entertainment and heritage tourism.

Lebanon is about 25 miles east of Nashville, Tennessee. This city is just over 30 thousand in population and is home to a well-established historic downtown core. However, with Music City’s growth encroaching on the west, there is the threat that suburban subdivisions unconnected to the city’s historic development pattern will dominate Lebanon in the future. Lebanon hired geoanalytics firm Urban3 to gain insight into how to preserve their city while also harnessing the power of nearby growth to maximize gains for their citizens. Urban3’s analysis is not just relevant to Lebanon; it’s also revealing in a broader sense about the performance of very small downtown areas.

By Robert Sulaski, Urban3 

Looking at all of Lebanon in terms of land value per acre (VPA) shows that the city is performing well as a whole relative to the rest of surrounding Wilson County. Lebanon generates three and a half times the tax revenue per acre that the county does. But some parts of Lebanon do better than others. Downtown Lebanon performs four and a half times better than the rest of the city in land VPA. This means that downtown Lebanon is 14 times more financially productive than Wilson County as a whole. Let’s take a look at this small but mighty downtown and see why it is so successful. 

Lebanon has a central square typical of Tennessee, where the bones of the city’s traditional development pattern remain with two-story buildings and narrow storefronts of mom-and-pop businesses. This is where the city’s most valuable real estate resides. Unfortunately, this place has become auto centric, with a traffic circle and parking lots covering much of the historic square. Ironically, this design is actually the “pedestrian-friendly” reconstruction finished in 2015, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). It still fails by a long shot to commit to being a place designed to produce wealth rather than a place designed to move cars. 

Even with a design that privileges vehicles, this square is still among the most valuable areas in the entire county. Lowery, Lowery, & Cherry, a legal office on the southeast corner of the square, weighs in at $6,386,352 per acre. Other properties on the square hold similar values. For reference, the nearest Walmart generates $775,744 per acre: The Walmart is only 12% as valuable in terms of land use. This isn’t unusual. We have seen humble mom-and-pop businesses dominate big-box monsters in other cities as well. Just look at Jimmy’s Pizza House in High Point, North Carolina. 

For more information, visit www.lebanontn.org/644/Historic-Downtown-Statistics.

To boost business, Lebanon uses its historic charm. Now we want yours. Grow with us! Historic. Heart. Vitality.

The historic Lebanon Main Street district has increased the number of new businesses, events and jobs in response to market demand and realized a 4:1 return on city, state and federally funded downtown investments. Improvements offer greater opportunities for business growth and expansion, and property owners are seeing improved marketability of their property and increased market values.

By Robert Sulaski, Urban3

Looking at all of Lebanon in terms of land value per acre (VPA) shows that the city is performing well as a whole relative to the rest of surrounding Wilson County. Lebanon generates three and a half times the tax revenue per acre that the county does. But some parts of Lebanon do better than others. Downtown Lebanon performs four and a half times better than the rest of the city in land VPA. This means that downtown Lebanon is 14 times more financially productive than Wilson County as a whole. Let’s take a look at this small but mighty downtown and see why it is so successful.

Lebanon has a central square typical of Tennessee, where the bones of the city’s traditional development pattern remain with two-story buildings and narrow storefronts of mom-and-pop businesses. This is where the city’s most valuable real estate resides. Unfortunately, this place has become auto centric, with a traffic circle and parking lots covering much of the historic square. Ironically, this design is actually the “pedestrian-friendly” reconstruction finished in 2015, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). It still fails by a long shot to commit to being a place designed to produce wealth rather than a place designed to move cars.

Even with a design that privileges vehicles, this square is still among the most valuable areas in the entire county. Lowery, Lowery, & Cherry, a legal office on the southeast corner of the square, weighs in at $6,386,352 per acre. Other properties on the square hold similar values. For reference, the nearest Walmart generates $775,744 per acre: The Walmart is only 12% as valuable in terms of land use. This isn’t unusual. We have seen humble mom-and-pop businesses dominate big-box monsters in other cities as well. Just look at Jimmy’s Pizza House in High Point, North Carolina.

For more information, visit www.lebanontn.org/644/Historic-Downtown-Statistics.