Sample book with community resources insert

The restoration of the Paramount proved to be the
catalyst for restoring downtown. Before long, the Drake
Hotel was magically transformed into The Grace Museum.
In the past 30 years, other restoration has followed
until today downtown Abilene is alive with repurposed
historic sites.
One of the showcases is the National Center for
Children’s Illustrated Literature, located in the restored
Rhodes Building at North First and Cedar Streets. The
center, the brainchild of another former Abilene mayor
with a can-do spirit, Gary McCaleb, was incorporated in
1997 and officially opened in March 2000.
Its success was highlighted in 2015 when the Texas
Legislature officially dubbed Abilene, the “Storybook
Capital of Texas,” and then “Storybook Capital of
America” in 2018. Those designations are celebrated
each June with a Children’s Arts & Literature Festival or
CALF—another iconic image of the Big Country.
New restoration projects are constantly cropping up
downtown, but so are plans for future construction. The
Community Foundation of Abilene has completed a new
office at North First and Mesquite streets. And, without
a doubt, the convention hotel and Festival District that
today’s Abilene movers and shakers envision will become
a reality.
Abilene is a city with an eye toward the future. But it
hasn’t forgotten its heritage, especially the characteristic
of a can-do spirit inherited from its founders.
As former Mayor Archibald says, “It it’s worth doing,
we can do it.”
The Paramount Theatre.
CHAPTER ONE
25