POINT PLEASANT — Tourism in Mason County continues to grow.

And the Main Street Point Pleasant organization has contributed to the county’s growing tourism industry. Due to its efforts in promoting tourism, Main Street Point Pleasant was recently awarded the 2009 Heritage Tourism Award by the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia.

The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia awards banquet was held on Sept. 23 at the Keith-Albee Theatre in Huntington. Charles Humphreys, executive director of Main Street, attended the banquet and accepted the heritage tourism award from Karen Carper of the preservation alliance.

According to Humphreys, the award is given to an organization for a combined program that includes historic buildings, historic homes and restoration and preservation of history and culture.

Humphreys described winning the award as being excellent for both Point Pleasant and Mason County.

“This award puts us on another level when writing grants. In general it is very good for Point Pleasant to be recognized around the state for things that Main Street Point Pleasant has done,” he said. “We’ve come up quite a bit in state recognition which means a lot of money goes to Point Pleasant and Mason County.”

He added that Main Street would not be able to accomplish what it does without the work of volunteers. Humphreys also said that he was very proud to receive the heritage tourism award as Main Street Point Pleasant was one out of 100 other groups up for the award.

According to Humphreys, Main Street has worked on several projects in town, such as the Point Pleasant Riverfront Park, historic floodwall murals, Krodel Park Christmas Fantasy Light Show and the revitalization of the down town area. Currently the organization is focusing on the restoration of the A.F. Kisar (Kincaid House).

“With our projects we are almost up to eight million (dollars),” Humphreys said. “The reason (the Main Street organization) is so important to Point Pleasant is because it helps create jobs and fill empty store fronts.”

Humphreys further described Main Street’s goals as to make the downtown area what it once was — a booming center for business and tourism. In addition, he said that the organization plans to host bus tours by 2010.

“We have the foundation to be successful in development here,” Humphreys said.