Board members, business owners and community members alike filled the gallery of Arts on Main this past Thursday to commemorate the Main Street Preservation Trust’s 15th year.

Jenny Crittenden, who has served as Executive Director of Main Street Preservation Trust since 2006, opened the event by speaking about the trust’s benefactor, the late Edwin Joseph. Crittenden called Joseph a “visionary,” adding, “we are here to honor his memory, his vision, and his gift.”

Aubrey Layne, a founding board member and current Virginia Secretary of Transportation, then talked about history of the trust. He told how Edwin Joseph, after reading a book that described the damage to local businesses big-box department stores often cause in smaller communities, “determined that that was not going to happen here.”

Layne spoke of the organization as a “way where the private sector, business community, and community can pool resources in a way that make...