The Main Street Program (Main Street America) was created in the late 1970’s as part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This program was created with a Four-Point Approach: economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization. Transformation strategies are created for each community to center around the four points. Transformation strategies are used to take community vision and market understanding and create qualitative and quantitative outcomes for the MainStreet community.

New Mexico MainStreet (NMMS) was created by the state legislature in 1985 to “assist local communities in implementing this strategy to revitalize their downtown commercial corridors.” NMMS serves 31 affiliated MainStreet Districts and 12 Arts & Cultural Districts. NMMS is essential in helping Taos MainStreet to promote economic vitality in downtown Taos.