Urban operation

Hank Parfitt is an idealist. He’s also pragmatic and a man of vision. 

Hank, a Durham native, came to Fayetteville in 1982 and joined Dr. William Jordan at Fayetteville Urology. As a physician, Hank cared for his patients, but also developed a desire to do more in the community.  

“The people in Fayetteville I found to be warm and incredibly generous,” Hank told CityView. “We discovered downtown and saw a spark of life.” 

In the 1990s, he and his wife Diane Parfitt began playing a role in revitalizing downtown Fayetteville, opening City Center Gallery on Maxwell Street in 1999. 

They didn’t take baby steps. They jumped in head first. 

They moved to Hay Street in 2003 and renamed the business “City Center Gallery & Books” after doing a complete top-to-bottom restoration of an 1890s building that last housed Sally’s Wigs. In 2014, they began living in an apartment upstairs. 

By 1999, Hank was serving on the steering committee that founded the city’s Downtown Development Corporation. In 2000, he helped found the Downtown Alliance, a merchants’ organization promoting historic downtown Fayetteville. He also helped create A Dickens Holiday, a long-lasting local tradition, with former Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County Executive Director Deborah Mintz, that same year. In 2005, he joined the Lafayette Society, an organization honoring the Marquis de Lafayette, for whom the city is named; he served as president from 2010-22.  

On June 13, Hank, 75, will receive a CityView Magazine Downtown Visionary Award, an honor that recognizes people who have made a difference in Fayetteville’s downtown community, alongside John Malzone and Eric Lindstrom. 

A passion for downtown 

“Like most people, you don’t do it for the reward,” said Hank, who retired as a physician in January 2015. “You do it because you care about it. You have a passion for whatever it is.”  

Others see that passion. 

Hank saw downtown’s potential, said Deborah, who was with the Arts Council for 25 years, the last 17 of which as executive director. 

“As a doctor, he decided that he was going to heal our downtown,” Deborah said. 

Determination is another trait. 

Pat Wright is co-owner of Groundswell Pictures, which she founded with Jan Johnson in 2014 and is located on the same block as City Center Gallery & Books. Wright characterized Hank as someone with a “never-say-die attitude.”  

“What makes him a visionary is that he could see through the broken glass and envision what it [downtown] could be,” Pat said. “We’ve just always been enthused by his tackling of any job. His energy never wavers.” 

How his downtown efforts started 

Fourth Friday, created by Deborah and the Arts Council, was the first downtown event that drew Hank’s attention. 

“There were only about four or five venues, but you could go from one to the other and have wine and walk on the street under the streetlights and feel safe,” Hank said. “The main thing is you would feel like, ‘Wow, this is kind of like a city.’ We said, ‘This is so cool and we want to be a part of it.’” 

Fourth Friday has morphed into much more, Hank said. 

“Over time businesses opened up and people saw opportunity and we started seeing a change in the demographics,” Hank said. 

The crowd got younger, more diverse, and more vibrant. 

“You no longer had to wait for 4th Friday for a busy weekend downtown,” he said. 

As more businesses settled downtown, Hank and his friend, Dr. Franklin Clark, were among those who created the Downtown Development Corporation (DDC), a now desolved organization that helped downtown’s early development. Clark suggested that the downtown business owners needed to band together, Hank said. 

So they began recruiting other downtown stakeholders to form the Downtown Alliance.  

“He said they need to be organized so they can have a voice,” Hank said. “So I took the suggestion seriously and walked around and knocked on doors and basically visited every single business downtown and invited everyone to join us, to be a part of the revitalization.” 

In its first year, the Downtown Alliance had 80 members, he said. 

A Dickens Holiday 

Another major success was A Dickens Holiday, which he and Deborah developed as a way to bring shoppers downtown on the day after Thanksgiving as an alternative to the malls. A Dickens Holiday, developed with the help of Arts Council staff, Downtown Alliance merchants, and numerous volunteers, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. 

“The whole point was the arts can be a stimulus to economic growth,” Hank said. “Well, in that first year, there were 4,000 people downtown.”  

It’s what Hank considers his most meaningful volunteer accomplishment.  

“The most important thing about A Dickens Holiday is the magical way it makes ‘A Christmas Carol’ come to life in our downtown,” he said. “Everywhere you turn, you see examples of kindness, good cheer, and respect for one another on that day.” 

Honoring Lafayette 

Hank is part of another celebration being planned for Fayetteville in March 2025: the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of 1824-25 when the French hero of the Revolutionary War, whose role as a major general helped the Continental Army defeat the British, toured the United States. 

Hank is chair of Fayetteville’s Bicentennial Committee.  

“[Lafayette] was hugely popular because he was a worldwide symbol of liberty, justice, and equality,” said Hank, who is the first vice president of the American Friends of Lafayette, a national organization based at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. “In the big cities, crowds were over a hundred thousand that came out to see him. Imagine what the population was then compared to now. That’s like rock star numbers, Taylor Swift numbers.” 

The celebration begins in New York in August 2024. 

“[Hank] is really, really impressed with the ideals of the Marquis de Lafayette,” said Gwenesta Melton, a retired rheumatologist and president of the Lafayette Society. “He preaches it and he absolutely is energized to help foster wonderful, positive things for the city.” 

Hank said his proudest accomplishment as former president of the Lafayette Society was the makeover of the Lafayette statue in Cross Creek Linear Park on Green Street. The statue of Lafayette wasn’t very accessible, he said. So the Lafayette Society installed a brick stage around the front side of the statue in 2013 and a brick performance stage around the other side in 2021. 

“The park is downtown, and it is a lasting contribution that will benefit all the citizens in the city and Cumberland County for many years to come,” he said. “It’s literally transformed Cross Creek Park into a welcoming space.” 

A partnership 

Hank’s biggest supporter is his wife of 54 years, Diane. They have two grown children, Nicole and Matthew. 

Diane, 78, has been a pediatric nurse, nurse educator, and volunteer. 

“Diane’s been right there with me. She very willingly embraced everything I’ve done downtown,” Hank said. “She has tremendous experience in the volunteer world, which I did not have. 

“As a surgeon, you’re not working with volunteers, you’re working with paid professionals. She really helped me learn how to negotiate the volunteer world.” 

Fayetteville’s future 

As for Fayetteville’s future, Hank sees promise. 

A proposed new performing arts center along with a downtown hotel would be “a winning combination,” he said. 

“Our greatest need is an individual or an organization dedicated solely to economic development in the downtown,” Hank said. “So much of what you see in downtown Fayetteville now is a result of the foundational work by the Downtown Development Corporation and the Downtown Alliance working together with the city during the decade after 1999.  

“And vital to that were private citizens willing to invest their savings in a downtown business,” he said. “However, we no longer have a DDC or any other organization directing downtown’s development in a purposeful way.” 

Success starts with people, Hank said. 

“Trying to get everybody pulling in the same direction can be extremely challenging,” Hank said, emphasizing the respect he has for his fellow downtown business people who are passionate about the city and want to do what they can to improve it  

“They’re idealistic. I’ve always been a sucker for idealists,” he added. 

Those fellow business owners can count on Hank. 

“His passion for downtown is so apparent,” said Elaine Kelley, owner of Turner Lane, a gift shop on Hay Street. “He will not ask someone to do something that he won’t do himself.” 

Or as his wife Diane says, “He hasn’t slowed down a bit.” 

And he has no plans to. 

“We love Fayetteville,” Hank said. “It has been a great place to raise a family. And moving downtown may be the best thing we ever did.”