"Wealthy individuals... well-funded nonprofits and even corporations like Walmart have begun buying deserted American main streets, hoping to reinvent them with a fresh aesthetic."

"The people behind these ventures frequently install their friends and acquaintances in storefronts, while attempting to preserve (or exploit, depending whom you ask) local history.... In addition to the art gallery [in Mountain Dale, NY], there’s an antiques store specializing in old-timey Americana, a vintage shop run by a breeder of Angora bunnies, a conceptual boutique that also shows art and an apothecary run by a fashion model.... Similar changes are happening in Wardensville, W.Va..... Over the last five years, Paul Yandura and his partner Donald Hitchcock purchased a handful of buildings there.... 'It’s about the nostalgia, the country, being out in fresh air,' Mr. Yandura said. The couple, former L.G.B.T.Q. activists and Democratic operatives, turned an old feed store into a fancy coffee shop and country market called the Lost River Trading Post, keeping many of the original details, like the grain chute. They renovated a ramshackle farmhouse into a bakery and started an organic farm... Many longtime residents still prefer to patronize Wardensville restaurants that either predate Mr. Yandura and Mr. Hitchcock’s activity or that locals have since opened... Mr. Yandura said he gets it: 'We’re creating a sense of place, but a sense of place is a tourist activity.'"

From "Can You Curate a Town?/Even Walmart wants to bring back ye olde Main Street" (NYT).