Examples of placemaking: 12 American towns that built a reason to visit
Field guide · Creative placemaking
Examples of placemaking: 12 American towns that built a reason to visit
Placemaking is a decision, not an inheritance. These twelve placemaking examples are towns that each picked one identity and kept building on it, some for decades, others, like Detroit Lakes, only since 2024.
Key takeaways
- Not all of these are old. The Detroit Lakes trolls date from 2024 and the Steubenville nutcracker village from 2015.
- Leavenworth rebuilt its downtown as a Bavarian village and drew about 3.4 million visitors to the greater Leavenworth area in 2024, against 2,263 residents at the 2020 Census.
- Springdale did the opposite and restricted development, running a General Fund budget of about $6.3 million on 514 residents at the 2020 Census.
- Our read: commitment mattered more than budget or scenery.
What is placemaking?
In this guide, placemaking means the deliberate work of turning a location into a destination by choosing one identity and building everything around it.
The term covers a wide range of practice, from a bench and a mural on one corner to a town rewriting its zoning code. What connects the examples below is that somebody made a choice that was not obvious at the time, then held it long enough for it to become the thing the place is known for.
What is creative placemaking, and how is it different?
Creative placemaking uses arts, culture and design as the engine rather than the decoration.
Conventional placemaking improves a space so people linger. Creative placemaking asks the space to carry an identity, sometimes one that did not exist before. A widened sidewalk is placemaking. A town that decides it is Bavaria and enforces that decision in its building code is creative placemaking.
The distinction matters for budgets. The first improves the experience of people already there. The second is an attempt to create the reason people come at all.
Six towns in detail
Leavenworth
Washington · Became BavariaThe railway left in the 1920s and the sawmill economy faded after it. In 1965 two local business owners led a trip to Solvang and brought back slides that helped convince town leaders a theme could work. The town chose Bavaria over a Gay Nineties idea and remodeled its entire downtown over several years, under design rules made official in 1970.
2,263 residents (2020 Census)3.4M visitors, greater area, 202433,000+ at the December peakSpringdale
Utah · Restricted developmentThe obvious play at the mouth of Zion was billboards and look alike chain buildings. Springdale wrote design controls instead, limited buildings to two stories, banned billboards and barred architecture that ties a business to chains elsewhere. Zion’s National Park Service shuttle then keeps private cars off the Scenic Drive for most of the year.
514 residents (2020 Census)4.9M park visits (2024)$6.3M General Fund (FY2026-27)Cooperstown
New York · Built the proofA 1907 commission decided baseball was invented here, on evidence historians have since dismantled. Local boosters opened Doubleday Field in 1920, the village took title in 1923, and philanthropist Stephen C. Clark founded the sport’s official Hall of Fame, which opened in 1939.
1,794 residents (2020 Census)3,000+ on a busy summer dayOpened 1939Detroit Lakes
Minnesota · Distributed the drawLakes are not scarce in northern Minnesota. Project 412, a nonprofit, brought in the artist Thomas Dambo in 2024. The trolls run from Fargo to Perham, and a treasure hunt starts at Alexa so visitors move through the place rather than past it.
Built 2024300+ volunteersAlexandria
Minnesota · Named the thingBig Ole anchors a contested claim about the Kensington Runestone. The claim is disputed. The statue is not, and it gives visitors a physical object to drive to and photograph.
28 foot statueBuilt 1965Frankenmuth
Michigan · Leaned all the way inFlat middle of Michigan. No lake, no mountain, no canyon. It had German heritage and nothing photogenic to distract it, so it committed completely to the one thing it did have.
No natural draw2M+ visit Bronner’s a yearHeritage as productSix more, in short
| Town | The decision |
|---|---|
| Solvang, California | Founded in 1911 by Danish Americans as a colony and folk school, then rebuilt in Danish style from the 1940s. This is the town Leavenworth studied before committing. |
| Bar Harbor, Maine | Does not own Acadia, so it became the door rather than the neighbor. Acadia visitors spent an estimated $539 million in the park’s gateway region in 2024, and Bar Harbor, about 5,100 people, is one of those gateway towns. |
| Wisconsin Dells | The opposite execution to Springdale. Embraced development completely and claimed the title of waterpark capital of the world. |
| Anoka, Minnesota | Claimed a date on the national calendar rather than a landscape: a Halloween celebration since 1920 and the self proclaimed Halloween Capital title since 1937. |
| Willow Creek, California | Planted a flag in unowned cultural material and became the address for the Bigfoot story. |
| Steubenville, Ohio | Built a nutcracker village that pulls visitors on a long drive in the one season most small towns go quiet. |
Is placemaking something only old towns inherited?
No. Plenty are recent. The Detroit Lakes trolls date from 2024 and the Steubenville nutcracker village from 2015. Leavenworth made its choice in the 1960s, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown opened in 1939.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Inherited things get maintained. Decided things get defended. A town that remembers choosing its draw tends to keep choosing it, budget cycle after budget cycle.
Does placemaking work for very small towns?
It happens in very small towns. Springdale had 514 residents at the 2020 Census, Cooperstown 1,794 and Leavenworth 2,263.
What do these examples have in common?
| Move | What it means | Clearest example |
|---|---|---|
| Find the anchor | One unrepeatable thing, sayable in a sentence | Cooperstown and baseball |
| Make it findable | Own the search results for the town and the thing | Detroit Lakes, where people search for the trolls by name |
| Make it pictured | Something travelers can imagine before arriving | Leavenworth’s architecture |
| Give a reason to stay | An overnight, an event, a route rather than a stop | Bar Harbor owning the hours either side of the park |
Uniqueness was not found in the mountains above town. It was built on the streets below.Only Here, Volume One
What are the most common placemaking mistakes?
Half commitment
One themed restaurant reads as a gimmick. A whole town reads as a destination. Leavenworth’s commitment shows in that a visitor never finds the seam where the fantasy stops.
Choosing something repeatable
If the next valley has it too, it is not an anchor. This is the trap Detroit Lakes was in before the sculptures, because every town nearby also had a lake.
Building and walking away
A landmark nobody manages online can answer questions wrongly.
Waiting for consensus
Leavenworth had to talk its leaders out of a Gay Nineties theme first. Holding a choice means refusing other reasonable ideas, and that never photographs well.
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of placemaking?
Leavenworth, Washington rebuilding its entire downtown as a Bavarian village in the 1960s is the clearest American example. The town had lost its railway and its sawmill economy, chose a single identity, and enforced it through design rules that still govern the buildings today.
What is the difference between placemaking and creative placemaking?
Placemaking improves a space so people want to spend time in it. Creative placemaking uses arts, culture and design to shape a place’s identity, sometimes creating one that did not exist before, often to generate the reason people visit at all.
How long does placemaking take to work?
Most examples here took decades. Detroit Lakes and Steubenville are younger: the trolls date from 2024 and the nutcracker village from 2015. Cooperstown has held one identity for close to a century.
Can a town do placemaking without a natural attraction?
Yes, and several examples here had none. Frankenmuth sits in flat farmland with no lake or mountain. Anoka claimed a date on the calendar rather than a landscape. The absence of scenery removes the temptation to rely on it.
Who decides what a town becomes known for?
In the best documented case here, Leavenworth, two business owners and a small group of property owners persuaded town leaders, then took out loans to build it. A discovered identity has no owner. A decided one has somebody whose job it is.
Find out where your town stands
We score American towns on seven categories, from website and story to lodging and anchor activity, and tell you the single highest leverage gap.
Not ready for a score? Take the free Town Checklist first: forty plain questions, ten minutes, and a list of what is missing.
Request a Visitor Impact ScoreSources
- Leavenworth visitors and December peak: Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce 2025 report, as reported by The Wenatchee World, 1 December 2025. The 1965 Solvang trip: HistoryLink. Populations in these cards: U.S. Census 2020.
- Zion visitation: National Park Service 2024 visitation and visitor spending reports.
- Cooperstown: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; population per U.S. Census.
- Detroit Lakes: Visit Detroit Lakes and MPR News. More in the Detroit Lakes case study.
- Springdale: town budget memo, 4 June 2026; town code; Zion shuttle.
- Other towns: Mount Desert Islander on Acadia; Pure Michigan on Bronner’s; Explore Alexandria on Big Ole; Congressional Record on Anoka; Pittsburgh Quarterly and BroadwayWorld on Steubenville; Wikipedia on Solvang.
Images: Leavenworth, Detroit Lakes and Alexandria from Creative City Developments. Springdale, Cooperstown and Frankenmuth via Wikimedia Commons.