LOUDON, TN (courtesy of WVLT) – The City of Loudon was founded over 200 years back in 1817. Now, city officials are looking to preserve the history while also expanding to prepare for future growth.
The city nestled up to the banks of the Tennessee River has rather unique beginnings.
“It was a commerce hub for retail,” said Kathy Price, the Downtown Loudon coordinator. “You’d have the ships coming up and the steamboats coming in dropping off product. Switching over to rail so really we were a center place between Atlanta, Cincinnati, and those places for commerce.”
Currently, downtown has a feel similar to that of a town square with a handful of local shops. However, it’s future could look much different.
Mayor Jeff Harris said the goal is for more people to live downtown.
“That’s really been the goal for several years to encourage people to live down there and have walkability to shops and restaurants and things like that,” Harris said.
Plans have been ongoing for nearly a year as the city received a grant from Tennessee Downtown.
Previous Coverage: Loudon city leaders talk expansion of downtown area
The group plans to work for another year to bring more business to the city.
“Commercial entities follow rooftops and density, so that would help us in our downtown to build that density to offer more services and retail and restaurants to our downtown residents,” Price said.
Harris is using the phrase “Live, shop and play” in an effort to offer people in Loudon more experiences and shops they can walk to.
“We’re seeing a lot more people moving here, and we need to offer those amenities for the people that live here now and those who will be moving here,” Price said.
Both Loudon city and county are already growing. The University of Tennessee recently conducted a study that found Loudon County is second in growth in East Tennessee, only behind Knox County.
City officials said they have several projects to complete over the next couple of years, but they expect the one in Downtown Loudon to be another 20 years.
