Downtown Network doing great things, bronze figure to be unveiled
Hope’s Downtown Network , a group of around 35 members have built a brotherhood of citizens that want to capitalize on the uniqueness and nostalgia associated with our Hope downtown streets and shops.
They want to promote and share the rich history and high numbers of various talents and leaders, such as former governor and talk show host Mike Huckabee and former President Bill Clinton. Clinton and Huckabee are but a few of the talents that grew right from this very area, according to Bob Erwin of Bob’s Antiques on Antique Alley downtown.
“We have a lot of things to take pride in,”Erwin said.
Barbara Noble of Elm Street Market Place also on Antique Alley said when she got wind that her friend Erwin, had started the downtown revitalization that was her call home. Noble had moved from Hope to go on and attend college and work for a troubled teens organization out of Colorado.
“ I had heard that Bob has started the revitalization of downtown- that’s when I thought it was the right time to come, “ Noble said. “I was excited for the revitalization of downtown.”
Once a person gets off the interstate, they find a gold mine.” We have Historic Washington, rail travel, the history here has so much to bring tourists to Hope,” Erwin said.
The downtown network with Farmers Bank and Trust are planning a fundraising event they are calling The Legacy Dinner, on a Saturday evening downtown on October 5, at the Hub. A dinner and silent auction will take place, along with the unveiling of a sculpture entitled “All Aboard.” The sculpture is a creation of the Randolph Rose Collection that uses a Lost-Wax Cast Bronze method.
The sculpture portrays a train conductor calling a woman and her young daughter to catch a train in the 1920’s. Erwin said this was significant because Hope, was first settled in 1873 then named Hope in 1875 after Hope Loughborough, the daughter of James M. Loughborough, the Cairo & Fulton Railroad company land commissioner.
Farmers Bank and Trust said they want this generosity to help residents and tourists alike to “enjoy this dynamic display for years to come.”
“We love our downtown area and we all work hard to improve it,” Erwin said.
One hundred tickets will be sold at 50$ a ticket, The auction will be at 5::30, dinner at 6:15 and the unveiling at 6:40 pm.