GREENFIELD — Downtown Greenfield is Monica Holden’s happy place.
That’s precisely why she jumped at the chance to become the new director for Greenfield Main Street, the nonprofit aimed at fostering enthusiasm and prosperity in the historic downtown commercial district.
The former art teacher took over the director’s spot July 5 after wrapping up her sixth year of teaching at Greenfield Central Junior High School.
Since then she’s spent her days getting to know downtown merchants and familiarizing herself with a program that takes a multifaceted approach to supporting the downtown district, based on guidelines laid out by the Indiana Main Street program and Main Street America.
“This job has a lot of different things to juggle, so I’m just figuring out how to juggle all the different aspects and putting faces with names,” said Holden, whose office is on the first floor of the Bradley Hall Events Center in the heart of town, at the corner of State and Main streets.
Holden and her family live in a historic home just a few blocks away.
She and her husband, Josh, and their children Zeke, 17, and Harper, 15, have called downtown Greenfield home for the past 10 years.
They’ve lived in their current home on North Street since 2016. Before that they lived in an apartment over the former Hometown Classic Pizza restaurant on Main Street.
To Holden, a small-town downtown is an ideal place to call home.
“Downtown is just an area where people should be congregating and enjoying all a community has to offer,” she said.
“I personally love being around all the activity, from art and music to having a meal with friends, to the little festivals that bring everybody together. I also love the artsy vibe small downtowns tend to offer,” said Holden, an avid artist.
She loves that the Twenty North Gallery downtown serves as a hub for Hancock County artists, and that the growing number of downtown murals is creating eye-catching conservation pieces around town.
Holden said she’s enjoyed bringing her children to downtown Greenfield events ever since they were little.
“It’s so fun to be within walking distance of all the activity,” she said.
She relishes the opportunity to continue making downtown Greenfield a great place to be through her new role with Greenfield Main Street.
The nonprofit’s vice-president, Sara Joyner, said Holden’s passion for downtown made her the ideal person for the job.
“She has a lot of enthusiasm for all the things going on downtown, and her artistic ability will come in handy as well,” Joyner said.
Holden earned an art therapy degree at the University of Indianapolis, which led her to teach art for the past eight years.
She and her family settled in Greenfield after her husband landed a teaching job with Greenfield-Central schools right out of college. He’s been with the school system ever since, and serves as the head wrestling coach at the high school.
Holden said she loves Greenfield’s small-town feel, which reminds her of her hometown of Speedway.
“It’s been really fun to see what (Speedway officials) are doing with their Main Street and to kind of bounce some ideas off the people who are in charge of their arts council and Main Street organization,” she said.
Holden said she looks forward to furthering Greenfield Main Street’s mission to support downtown merchants, maintain and beautify historic buildings and host events designed to bring people downtown.
She’s also excited to help bring more art and murals to town.
“I’m working on applying for a grant right now to create a community mural where people would work with local teachers to help create it, so fingers crossed we’ll secure funding for that,” she said.
Holden has also been busy renovating the Greenfield Main Street office space, which she said will soon be used to give merchants without a storefront a temporary place to sell their goods.
“We’re going to use part of the office as a pop-up shop, which would be new and exciting,” she said.
Beautifying and maintaining the downtown’s historic architecture is also a high priority, said Holden, who has been managing Greenfield Main Street’s facade grant program, which offers downtown business owners $3,000 matching grants to enhance their facades.
“We’d also like to incorporate events that will bring more people downtown,” she said.
The next big event is the Mutt Strut, a canine-focused event to be held in the Living Alley and North Street starting at 4 p.m. Sept. 2. A holiday breakfast with Santa will take place at the Bradley Hall Event Center on Dec. 17.
Holden said the future looks bright for downtown Greenfield, especially with a growing number of businesses — like the new TRIO coffee bar and wine shop, at 14 N. State St. — staying open for longer hours throughout the week.
“We have so many options and the list keeps growing. Having these places open longer, especially for dinner, is going to really help bring more people downtown,” she said.
