In October 2015 Raine’s Market announced it was moving from Main Street to a location north of town, taking Eureka’s only bank with it. To help keep the historic downtown alive, a small group of local residents created Eureka Restoration Enterprise, to restore and preserve Eureka’s unique and beautiful downtown.
Their home base is the old Meeker Grocery store, built in 1877 and last open to the public in the late 1940s. The owner allowed them to clean out the building and sell everything in it to benefit the restoration. They replaced the boarded up front window, then cleaned, sanded, and clear-coated the floor. They painted the interior shelves, walls, and the outside.
When the doors opened in May 2017 the store looked new again, as if Eureka had been revived to its old glory mining days. The old grocery store is now stocked with products from a dozen communities around Nevada and has welcomed visitors from all over the world, serving as a de facto Visitors Center.
The organization sponsors an annual Art, Wine, and Music Fest featuring Nevada wines and beers. It brings visitors from all over the state, and the revenue raised, along with a Jackpot grant from the Nevada Arts Council, provided for the murals that now adorn two buildings downtown, with more to come.