By Nathan Ham
The Mayview Plaza construction work recently finished up in Blowing Rock, signaling the completion of the second phase of the Laurel Lane Beautification Project.
The project, which is a three-phase project that started in 2017, was put together as a public and private partnership between the Town of Blowing Rock, the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce and The Village Foundation.
“Our economic development committee spearheaded this along with the Village Foundation doing a lot of the fundraising for it,” said Charles Hardin, the president of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce. “We got it open and dedicated and it’s beautiful.”
Hardin says there is no official start date yet for phase three of the project.
Mayview Plaza was constructed to connect Laurel Lane to Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock. The plaza will also pay homage to four of the most important tourist attractions in Blowing Rock with stone monuments commemorating the Blowing Rock Attraction, Tweetsie Railroad, Appalachian Ski Mountain and the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show.
The plaza has another stone monument that is dedicated to the Mayview Manor that was torn down in 1978.
Another addition to the plaza is the park benches that give people in town another great place to stop and relax in downtown.
“It adds some shady areas for people wanting to sit and enjoy some shade,” Hardin said.
He added that since the trees in Memorial Park were cut down, the benches there are out in the sun and do not offer much shade for people to enjoy. The benches in the Mayview Plaza do have plenty of shade for those who want to cool off a bit during the summer.
The recent completion of the roadwork on Highway 321 and the second phase of the beautification project finished just in time as the summer tourism season begins to take off.
“Our merchants and businesses I have spoken to so far had a really good June and I’m hearing good things about July as well. This is the first summer in a while without a lot of roadwork going on,” Hardin said. “May was good, April was not so great because of the February weather we had in April this year that kind of deterred a lot of folks.”
Hardin said there was a great turnout for the recent Fourth of July Parade, despite a little rain that rolled through the area but thankfully stopped about 10 minutes before the parade began.
Coming up at the end of this month is the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show Hunter/Jumper Division (July 24-29) that will be sure to bring another big crowd of tourists and High Country residents to Blowing Rock. Week two of the Hunter/Jumper Division will be Aug. 1-5.
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