Downtown Centreville Keeps Courthouse Hours, and the Town Wants That to Change
Why is downtown Centreville busiest when the courthouse is open and quietest on the weekend? Main Street America's study for the town answers that with location data. In 2025, the Main Street district logged 453,700 visits, 23% more than in 2023. Those visits peak on weekdays around court and county business and drop to their lowest on Saturday and Sunday.
So downtown has enough visitors. The weekday courthouse calendar decides when they come, and the town's July 2026 strategy is built around moving some of that activity to evenings and Saturdays.
Lisa Thompson, a Senior Program Officer with Main Street America, presented the findings to the Centreville Town Council on July 16, 2026. The work drew on a community survey with 463 responses, focus groups with business and property owners, and Esri and Placer.ai market data. Set side by side, the numbers describe a downtown that people return to often, stay in for a while, and still have trouble recommending.
| What the study measured | Figure | Window |
|---|---|---|
| Visits to the Main Street district | 453,700, up 23% from 2023 | Jan–Dec 2025 |
| Unique visitors | 105,400, averaging 4.3 visits each | Jan–Dec 2025 |
| Average time per visit | 79 minutes | Jan–Dec 2025 |
| Survey respondents who expect to still be part of the community in five years | 82% | Early 2026 |
| Respondents who feel welcome downtown | 74% | Early 2026 |
| Respondents who would not recommend downtown to a friend as a place to visit | 64% | Early 2026 |
The study calls the gap between the 74% who feel welcome and the 64% who would not recommend a visit "the single most important finding in the survey." Its reading is plain: "Residents are not leaving, and they are not unhappy with Centreville. They simply cannot yet point a friend toward enough to see, do, and buy downtown."
Asked to name the top issues, 66% of respondents chose not enough businesses and destinations suited to them. Another 62% named too many vacant storefronts and lots, and 48% pointed to buildings that are neglected or need rehabilitation.
The study also tracks where the spending goes. More than half of the district's own visitors also shop regularly at Kent Towne Market, Waterside Village in Easton and the Queenstown outlets. The report puts it this way: "The spending power is here; much of it is being spent 12–18 miles away."
The full strategy report lists the businesses that carry downtown's daily traffic, along with the courthouse, county offices and the library: Edwards Pharmacy, Colosseum Pizza, Mamma Mia, Commerce Street Creamery, Bay Shore Steam Pot, Sugar Doodles, Uno Más and Bull & Goat Brewery.
The same report says directly that business hours do not match demand. Residents' preferred visiting times are weekday evenings and Saturdays, "precisely when much of the district is closed." Business owners named employee availability as the main reason they can't stay open longer. The shorter market-study presentation describes the preferred times as Friday evenings and Saturdays.
The buildings themselves play a part. The report notes a heavy concentration of professional and service offices on key blocks. These bring daytime activity but limit the variety of ground-floor storefronts and evening life, and property owners and residents both raised the issue. An office that closes at five shapes the evening on its block as much as any restaurant does.
Two anchors post hours that show the range. Commerce Street Creamery at 110 N. Commerce St. lists Friday and Saturday hours of 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on its online ordering page, so on weekends it closes by mid-afternoon. Mamma Mia's Italian Bistro & Sports Bar at 219 E. Water St. says it opens every day at 11 a.m. for dine-in and carryout.
Getting there matters too. The report says one-way streets make it harder for people to find businesses off the main corridors. It also says Route 213 traffic affects the walk through downtown, and that neighborhoods including Northbrook and Three Creeks lack safe walking and biking links to the district.
When something is planned for a weekend, people come downtown. The Town of Centreville's fall event shows it best.
Centreville Day returns on Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lawyers Row and Broadway close to traffic, and activities spread across the front and back lawns of the historic Queen Anne's County Courthouse. The rain date is Sunday, October 25. The town says the free festival has run for 14 years and draws 1,000 to 1,200 children and adults from around the region. This year's lineup includes:
Vendor, sponsor and contest forms are posted at CentrevilleMDEvents.com, and volunteers can reach the Centreville Main Street Manager, Carol D'Agostino, through the town.
The other regular weekend draw is the Centreville Farmers' Market on Lawyers Row. Visit Queen Anne's County lists it every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and it was still on the calendar for October 4, 2026. The county also lists a market date on November 1. No confirmed 2026 end date has been published, so check the county calendar before planning a late-season Sunday.
Both events use the same streets and the same courthouse square that see so few visits on an ordinary Saturday. The plan sets out to make that happen every week.
The strategy has two parts. Year one builds the Main Street organization. Years two through five work on capturing and growing downtown activity. For the steering committee's first 90 days, the study lists these steps:
After that come the steps residents would notice on the street. The plan calls for filling vacant buildings and upper floors through reuse, redevelopment and pop-ups. It aims to recruit the businesses people asked for: casual dining, arts and culture, boutiques, coffee and family entertainment. It also calls for signage to parking, side streets and key destinations, plus coordinated evening and Saturday hours backed by programming.
The three-to-five-year targets are specific:
The coordinated-hours target is the one aimed straight at the weekday pattern in the 2025 visit data. It is also the hardest to reach, since owners already name staffing as their limit. The July 16 minutes record the presentation itself. As of early October, the materials reviewed for this post show no installed map, directory or signage yet. For now, these are goals with a schedule.
The clearest sign of change right now is a single address. In March, the Queen Anne's County Liquor Board approved a license for Town Square Grill at 122 N. Commerce St., with a May 1, 2026 start. The approval depended on tax, Fire Marshal, Health Department and town occupancy sign-offs. Applicant James H. Farmer II described a family restaurant serving burgers and comfort food. Whether it opened has not been confirmed.
By August, a new application had arrived for the same address. Brittany M. Gordon applied for a Class "B" beer, wine and liquor license on behalf of 122 North Commerce St., LLC, trading as The Ordinary. On August 4, the board cleared it for advertising ahead of a public hearing. That hearing was set for Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 9 a.m. Minutes from that meeting had not been posted when this was written, and no concept or opening date has been announced.
One storefront won't fill a Saturday on its own. Still, 122 N. Commerce sits in the blocks the strategy is trying to change, and it now has two license applications in the same year. It shows that people are interested in opening places that serve food and drink on the courthouse square.
If you're curious what a busier downtown Centreville could mean for nearby homes, or you're weighing a move closer to Commerce Street and the courthouse square, Jody Baker is glad to talk it through, from what's opening to what's still just a plan. Let's Connect.
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