Founder’s Award | Connecticut Main Street Center | Revitalizing Connecticut's Main Street Districts

Recognizing organizations and individuals for their unparalleled commitment to Main Street.

2017 Award Winner John Simone stands with a team of supporters from Eversource, including Board member Toni Berlandy (r).

Connecticut Main Street Center established the Founder’s Award, presented by Eversource (formerly the Connecticut Light & Power Company Award) in 2001 to recognize organizations and individuals who dedicate themselves to promoting an awareness of the necessity of a comprehensive management approach to the revitalization of Connecticut’s Main Streets.

The award is named for its first recipient, The Connecticut Light & Power Company (now Eversource), which launched the State’s Main Street program in 1995. CL&P still stands as the only private corporation in the country to solely sponsor and administer a statewide Main Street initiative.

CT Main Street Founder’s Award, presented by
Award Recipients:

Each year, an organization or individual is selected that has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to comprehensively addressing the needs of Connecticut’s downtowns. Past recipients are listed below.

2020 – The Cities Project
The Cities Project is a collaboration between seven leading Connecticut journalism organizations who publish periodic articles exploring challenges and solutions related to revitalizing Connecticut’s cities. Members of the collaboration are CT Mirror, Connecticut Public Radio, Hearst Connecticut Media, Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Hartford Business Journal, and Purple States. Together these seven media companies describe the key challenges our cities face, identify solutions that other cities around the country have implemented to address similar challenges, and explore the feasibility of implementing those solutions in Connecticut.