Washington Street Festival is a Long-Standing Muncie Tradition

Don't miss the 31st annual Washington Street Festival this weekend, Sept. 15 and 16. Tour the beautiful historic homes, and enjoy the traditional fare of local arts and crafts, live music and festival food.

From their website:

31st Annual Old Washington Street Festival and Historic Home Tour
September 15 & 16, 2007
Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday 11:00am - 5:00pm

Visit Magic City Gas Boom Era Muncie, Indiana

Be a part of all the excitement and festivities during the Annual Old Washington Street Festival to be held on the four blocks of East Washington Street between Madison and Hackley Streets.

The primary focus of the Old Washington Street Festival is on the architectural, cultural, and social heritage of Muncie's Emily Kimbrough Historic District and the surrounding neighborhood. Home tours and a walking tour extend the bounds of the Festival to approximately fourteen square blocks.

At the hub of the Festival on Washington Street are demonstrations of crafts contemporary to the turn of the Emily Kimbrough Housecentury, arts and crafts displays, musical entertainment, an ice cream social and other refreshments, antiques, a milk wagon and a hand-drawn fire pumper to take visitors back to the gas boom era. We expect the variety of attractions to draw over 8,000 people.

Since 1976 the East Central Neighborhood Association in Muncie, Indiana has sponsored the Old Washington Street Festival. The Festival focuses on the architectural, cultural, and social heritage of Muncie from the late 1800s through the turn of the century.

The East Central Neighborhood boasts a great variety of housing stock, most of it built between 1870 and World War I. At the turn of the century most of Muncie's gas-boom wealth had Historical Re-enactmentsbeen lavished on homes here, and many of the twelve-block section of the area has been designated locally and by the state as the Emily Kimbrough Historic District, and in 1980 it was included on the National Register of Historic Places (see neighborhood map).

Our neighborhood includes business and industry, as well as a number of community service agencies, organizations, and churches. The architectural charm and variety of homes here have attracted a number of families to return to the city. They are involved in housing restoration projects, some ambitious restorations, and some modest maintenance and redecorating tasks.

Our residents find our neighborhood an interesting mix of cultures, lifestyles, and activities; many residents feel that they experience living in a neighborhood in the truest sense.

For more about the East Central Neighborhood Association and the Old Washington Street Festival, visit their website at http://www.muncie-ecna.org.