CityView Magazine

18 June 2023 'Why don't you do something?' Molly Arnold put her dream of a rebirth for downtown Fayetteville into action, pursuing her own vision of a vibrant city center while encouraging others to embrace their own passions. BY BILL KIRBY JR. | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAUL RUBIERA M olly Arnold still remembers that day sometime in the mid- 1990s when Sunday on the Square was interrupted by a steady rain shower. She and her husband, Bruce Arnold, sought refuge. "We kind of tucked up under this little building that looked so sad to escape from the rain," Molly Arnold says. "I looked around and said, 'I wish they would do something with downtown and these wonderful buildings.'" en why, Bruce Arnold said to his wife, don't you do something if you think something needs to be done? e vacant building at the corner of Hay and Franklin streets later would catch Molly Arnold's eye. "It was condemned. ere was no glass, no floor upstairs, no electricity, no plumbing," Arnold says. "And a lot of pigeon poop." e Arnolds would purchase the property in 1997. "And that began my journey downtown," says Molly Arnold, owner of Rude Awakening coffee house on Hay Street and Cursive, formerly known as White Trash & Colorful Accessories, at 223 Franklin St. Molly Arnold, 68, is one of three recipients of CityView's Downtown Visionaries awards recognizing pioneers in the redevelopment of downtown Fayetteville. e awards will be presented at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. June 22 in the Aevex Veterans Club at Segra Stadium. Also being honored in the third class of downtown visionaries is Bruce Daws, the longtime and retired city historian, and Mac Healy, a Fayetteville businessman who was instrumental in the Marvin Plan, an ambitious blueprint for downtown revitalization presented in the late 1990s. Past recipients of the awards include Menno Pennink and the late Harry Shaw in 2022 and Mayor Bill Hurley, city historian Rosalie Huske Kelly, and the Rev. C.R. Edwards, the longtime pastor at First Baptist Church on Moore Street and a civil rights activist. Downtown was calling ere was just something about downtown that was calling Molly Arnold. "I found myself unexpectedly working Molly Arnold Molly Arnold COVER STORY

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