About a decade ago, the industrial town of Bellows Falls, Vt. was looking for ways to revitalize its troubled downtown.

Somebody came up with a wonderful idea. They took a decaying and mostly vacant block down by the canal and offered the apartments in the buildings free to artists willing to come and live and work in the town.

This new urban idea – using artists to draw tourists and visitors and new residents – has been successful all over America.

The idea of using the power of art as bait has been good for urban centers, not always good for the artists, who most often get driven out when the newcomers drive real estate prices and taxes up and out of sight.

People love to be around artists; they just don’t always love to buy art.

It takes a long time and much commitment to turn downtowns around, and often the artists can’t hang on long enough to benefit.

Still,  the Bellows Falls experiment has taken hold. The artists there are vibrant, creative, and not yet rich. It is an old story.

Mural on the way into bellows Falls, Vt.

Maria and I have fallen in love with the town, especially this artist’s block, full of feeling and creative energy. It is definitely worth a visit. We are hooked. There is no good place yet to stay in town, but there is a lot about getting one open.

The artists have apparently formed a strong community in Bellows  Falls; they all say they love living there, even though it’s not yet a booming art market.

Sadly, it takes a lot of rich people to make artists wealthy. Bellows Falls is a fascinating town in a beautiful part of the country. They have a robust art colony as well.

I took this photo because my Leica is leading me towards details. Because of its clarity, I see it as a detail camera; this is a new way for me to think of photography.  I also thought these 19 electric meters speak to the power of art. The artists spawned them and brought them there.

Each one is new, which means almost every one of the buildings on the art block has a new artist living there. I don’t know if that’s literally true, but it’s what I really want to believe.

Bellows Falls was clearly an industrial town built on the back of a strong canal and railroad center. It is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County. In 2010, the town had 3 148 residents, according to the U.S. Census.

It was once an important fishing place on the Connecticut River for the nomadic Abenaki tribes. The Bellows Falls Canal, one of the first canals built in the United States, was dug between 1791 and 1802.

The town became a principal producer of paper and farm machinery.

The canal was widened in 1928, and the water was and is still used to power turbines to generate electricity.

Bellows Falls is what I call an authentic place with genuine people, unlike so many of Vermont’s rich and consciously gorgeous towns. Bellows Falls is not gorgeous, but it reeks of history and is nestled among gorgeous hills.

The town has many junk and antique stores, a musty old dinner, a mustier old bar, and a mustier old Chinese restaurant.

It also has smoothies, gourmet cakes, antique shops with beautiful stuff, and the dingiest Walgreens I’ve ever seen.

The town is full of historic Victorian architecture, loaded with industrial and historic landmarks and a train tunnel that rumbles right below the main street. Like many historic towns, it was always too poor for the money people to bother to knock it down.

Because so many buildings were built with brick, the town never burned.

Looking at the buildings is worth the trip alone.

I looked into a realtor’s window, and I see that the homes’ prices are shooting up. I love where I live and have no plans of moving, but if I came into a busload of money, I’d want to buy a second home in Bellows Falls.

It will be a blast to watch deserving place grow,  another boomer town built on the backs and blood of pioneer artists. Perhaps if it really boomed, the artists might even get rich. Don’t bet on it.

The power of art is great, even if that usually happens around artists and not to them. I’m rooting for them. The rich people could fail to take over a community just this once.