Last weekend, we ran into Ken Collins who specializes in creating and painting unique furniture and accessories. Above, Ken is featured with one of the great lamps he made out of old parts from the now defunct Newman Machine. Ken is so creative and loves to combine little bits of Greensboro’s history with his design elements. We first became aware of his artistry at Adelaide’s on Spring Garden. The above photo was taken at Lewis Street’s newest business, ReAligned, a store of vintage items and repurposed treasures in Downtown Greensboro. Shopkeeper Melanie Knier has taken the little building just off South Elm Street, at Southside, and turned it into something that has tremendous potential. Personally, we’d love to see a little café in her outside space.

If you haven’t been downtown in a while, you definitely need to visit the loop that starts at the railroad tracks on Barnhardt Street, back through the parking lot and around to Lewis Street, across Elm Street to East Lewis and then over to MLK Drive ending up at Dame’s Chicken and Waffles. Downtown is changing before our eyes and people like Melanie and Ken are part of this new wave of businesses around the 500 block of South Elm Street.