The Town of Middletown recently celebrated their 250-year anniversary and there’s no slowing down of activities happening this spring and summer to continue the momentum.

Becky Axilbund, Main Street Manager for the Town of Middletown, is leading several projects to promote Middletown’s downtown business district. If you haven’t seen the new Main Street Middletown Welcome Center at 19 W. Main Street, you’re in for a treat. The building is also currently the subject of a fundraising project. Recently awarded a $10,000 grant from Preservation Maryland, and $25,000 from the Tourism Council of Frederick County, efforts are still ongoing to purchase the building.

Main Street Middletown hosted the Coloring the Street event this past April. “It was super cute with chalk artists on the street, kids art activities, chalk art contests for kids, wine tasting, food, and more,” said Mrs. Axilbund.

As historic preservation and sustainability are important to Middletown, Main Street will host an event in partnership with the Town’s Green Talks that will discuss the relationship between sustainability and historic preservation.  The tour on May 19  will point out historic features as well as sustainable ones – and why they should be saved. They will demonstrate how double hung windows take advantage of the wind direction in Middletown, how historic properties drained and dealt with water and collected it into cisterns, and how to create a preservation plan. 

On June 9, Middletown will host Vintage Vehicles in the Valley “with old-time candy and sodas that you can’t just get anywhere, a band, and lots of exciting cars to view,” said Becky. Raffles and voting on “Best In Show” will be part of the activities. July will bring the Heat is On 5K fun run which also is an important fundraiser for Main Street efforts.

Main Street Middletown has also kicked off a major online advertising campaign to capture target audiences and audience extension. This campaign has been developed over the last few months and has included Main Street making improvements to their website, social media, and photography to bring it all together and further the town’s brand and image. 

On the business side, the new shopping center on the outskirts of downtown – Cross Stone Commons – will soon welcome Black Hog and Cinco de Mayo to Middletown’s dining options. The Main Cup, a dining favorite, has taken advantage of Main Street Middletown’s Façade Improvement program and the historic neon Main’s Ice Cream sign has been repaired and is glowing brightly at night. 

The Town also recently voted to annex a residential development at the edge of town, near Safeway.

“Of course, in the background of everything is the State Highway Administration road construction project that began in October 2016 happening all along Main Street,” said Becky.

What road construction project? We hardly noticed with all the great things happening in the Town of Middletown!

For more information about doing business in the Town of Middletown, please visit www.mainstreetmiddletown.org or contact Becky Axilbund at 301-371-6171 ext. 22.

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