03-04-2025
Wetumpka Area Chamber of Commerce leader, once featured on HGTV, talks to Blakely about downtown revitalization
BLAKELY – It was standing room only as Blakely and Early County residents crammed into downtown Blakely's Funny Girl Deli to hear from Shellie Phelps Whitfield Monday evening.
Whitfield is the executive director of the Wetumpka, Ala., Area Chamber of Commerce and was featured on HGTV's 'Home Town Takeover' in 2020. She came to Blakely for a downtown visioning session, talking revitalization and economic development with eager community members. She did so by sharing the success story of Wetumpka.
'Tell everybody about what you see tonight,' David Atkins, the chairman of the Downtown Development Authority of Blakely, said to the crowd. 'This is what Blakely can be … like we were in the '60s and '70s. It's a great day for us.'
Blakely's been on a multiyear journey to revitalize its historic downtown – a journey that's gained momentum since it was named a state Rural Zone in 2023, which creates tax incentives for job creation and investment. Restoring and renovating historic buildings and bringing new businesses are the primary goals. Susanne Reynolds, Blakely's DDA director, said the community's been passionate about revitalization.
'I think that hearing from other people who have done it, and seeing how they've done it, that gives them hope that it can happen here,' Reynolds said. Blakely's downtown makes a square shape, centered around the historic Court House building. Staff Photo: Lucille LanniganWhitfield shared the story of Wetumpka to a captivated Blakely audience. When the Colorado native first stumbled upon the town, most widely known for its appearance in the Tim Burton film 'Big Fish' – she said 40% of the downtown was boarded up. There were three businesses, one a hot dog restaurant that was open only for lunch time. The sidewalks were haphazard, resembling a 'patchwork quilt.' Whole lengths of streets were owned by the same people with little intention to put buildings back into use.
'It's like a little movie set,' Whitfield said Monday. 'Just like yours, it's like a little time capsule.'
Whitfield learned from an initial conversation with a local economic developer that Wetumpka residents had been trying to revitalize their little town long before she arrived.
'She's telling me how much they love their town,' Whitfield said. 'How they've watched it dry up. How they want to bring it back to life.'
Soon, Whitfield found herself moving her family to Wetumpka where she became deeply involved in 'breathing new life' into the town.
Whitfield said the first step to revitalization is finding what makes a town unique and telling that story.
For Wetumpka, that was its 5-mile-wide impact crater, which formed about 83 million years ago when a cosmic object struck.
'Nobody had been telling that story,' Whitfield said. 'People that lived there didn't even know about it.'
So the city placed signage and turned it into an attraction.
The Coosa River also flows through the town. Whitfield spearheaded marketing it as a rafting destination.
The longer Whitfield stayed in Wetumpka, the more of its quirks she uncovered and helped the town to capitalize on: its Tulotoma snail, its Rosenwald school, its claim to being the birthplace of famous Southern artist Kelly Fitzpatrick.
'What makes you different is your superpower,' Whitfield said.
Telling Wetumpka's story got it featured on Hometown Takeover, which helped further the town's revitalization. The crew from the show redid houses and established a farmers market. Soon, Wetumpka's downtown will be completely filled with business. The town just announced its last empty building will become an urban market.
Reynolds said she hopes Whitfield's talk and Wetumpka's success story will make Blakely and Early residents believe the same is possible for their small town. It was standing room only in Funny Girl Deli as people packed in the shop to hear Shellie Phelps Whitfield talk. Staff Photo: Lucille LanniganReynolds said Blakely's special feature is its agriculture. Each year it hosts the Peanut Proud Festival, honoring the peanut industry and what it means to the community. On April 19, the town is hosting its first Downtown Blakely Farmers Market, which will run the third Saturday of each month until April.
Reynolds said Blakely's unique, historic buildings and warehouses stand out as well, a feature Whitfield complimented.
'We have tons of buildings that can be activated that are unique assets to downtown,' she said. 'We have the perfect structure for a very thriving, traditional, Southern downtown.'
One attendee brought up the Powell Opera House, which recently made the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation's 2025 list of 10 Places in Peril. This program seeks to preserve historic sites across the state that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy.
The building is privately owned and has been shuttered for almost a century. The DDA and Blakely community are in the early stages of brainstorming what the special space could become for the community.
'We have to be the generation that opens its doors again,' Reynolds said.
Blakely native Mandy Chapman said the community's hospitality makes the town special.
'Everyone's very friendly, welcoming and supportive of each other,' she said. 'If we can collaborate our ideas and efforts, we can restore our town.'
Whitfield said such action requires a 'dream team' of community members, a group made up of not only elected officials but also creatives, educators, business owners, grant writers, local historians and newcomers alike.
'We embraced what made us different, and we encouraged people to get in the boat and row in the same direction,' Whitfield said.
Chapman, her husband Chad, and business partner Brad Waller bought the old Sawyer's shopping center about five years ago. The Blakely building had been boarded up for about 40 years. They're working to revitalize it as Wallchap Shopping Center, a complex that offers an affordable site for commercial businesses. They host Smith & Co., a boutique store; The Rodeo Cantina & Grill, a Mexican restaurant, and the Old Goat Soap Company, which moved into the space in late January.
Chapman can recall times when Blakely's downtown was thriving with businesses — when 'everything you needed was right here' with little need to travel outside of town to shop.
'I would like to see Blakely flourish again as it did when I was a child,' she said.
Whitfield said downtown revitalization changes the trajectories of communities. It creates business, and it creates tax dollars and money flowing to other areas of the community, including schools.
'Start in the middle and work outward,' she said. 'Economic impact helps everybody.'
