Twenty years ago, exiting Amtrak’s Crescent in downtown Hattiesburg, the scene made me want to turn back, ascend the stairs and head home.

The streets were dusty outside the ramshackle depot. Houses and, what this Yankee later found out to be juke joints, lined the streets. Squirrely people were everywhere.

Looking toward downtown, the buildings were gray and ugly and unkempt. Could this possibly be the place I would spend the next four years? Really?

A taxi eventually arrived to pick me up in front of said jukes, and off we went — as fast and far from downtown as we could get.

It was a dump.

All the growth in Hattiesburg, then, went west toward Columbia. A K-Mart was followed by Walmart, and a new mall. Had it gone much farther, Columbia would have been annexed.

Fast forward 20 years to downtown Hattiesburg and it is full of life — not low-lifes. The depot underwent massive renovations before being turned into an operating train station and museum. (Sound familiar?) The area around the station followed the trend. Areas that no one without police escorts once would go near were now visitor-friendly. Restaurants and watering holes — and two breweries — are there.

The lynchpin for the entire revitalization stemmed from the depot. And it certainly could, and should, happen here.

The opening of the Old Depot Museum and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center can be downtown’s lynchpin.

Downtown Vicksburg today still looks leaps-and-bounds better than downtown Hattiesburg, but the business climate is still built for the daytime. Festivals draw people downtown, but again, mostly during the day. But there still are too many empty storefronts on the showcase avenue in the city.

Downtowns in cities large and small have seen massive progress, and that progress usually begins with a project or two to attract people. Attract people, and businesses will follow. If businesses follow, tax coffers go up. If tax coffers … you get get the idea.

We know people will be coming, but time is ticking away to events surrounding the sesquicentennial of the Siege of Vicksburg that are sure to bring thousands of people here.

No reason exists why Vicksburg, with its history and culture, cannot feature a downtown area that people far and near flock to day and night. It happened in Hattiesburg; it can happen here.