Downtown Fayetteville's October Runs Through the Back Door

"You have to survive to someday," Andrea Mueller told The Citizen in September. She co-owns Olde Courthouse Tavern on Glynn Street, across from the old Fayette County Courthouse. By "someday" she means the finished alleyway, the plaza and the pedestrian space the city has planned behind her building. "Survive" refers to the tavern's revenue, which she estimated has fallen 30% to 40% during construction.

October is downtown Fayetteville's busiest stretch of the fall. Woofstock, the Cemetery Walk, a movie night, the Great Pumpkin Walk and the Great Pumpkin Fest all land within about three weeks of each other, most of them steps from that block. The way you walk into downtown this month matters more than usual, because the entrance most customers use on the Square's west side is the back door.

The Entrance Most Customers Use

Olde Courthouse Tavern's front entrance faces Highway 85/Glynn Street. Mueller estimates that about 75% of its customers have traditionally come in through the rear, where the alleyway and parking are. The rear door is also the tavern's accessible entrance. The tavern, founded by Mueller's father, Larry Graves, has a Glynn Street entrance with steps.

The tavern isn't alone on that stretch. The city's dining directory lists Gremlin Growlers at 101 South Glynn Street, Olde Court House Tavern at 105 South Glynn Street and LaFayette's Bon Temps Tavern at 115 S Glynn Street. Fayette County News puts the new Main Street Alley Plaza behind 101 to 115 Glynn Street South, so that one block of storefronts is where the alley work has hit hardest.

A few doors down, attorney David Ballard told The Citizen that some clients assumed his office had closed. He eventually cut back much of his wills practice, in part because many of those clients were elderly and had a hard time getting to the building. He still calls the finished work an improvement.

What Phase One Fixed and What It Left

The old alley was narrow, with two-way car traffic sharing the space with people on foot. Downtown Development Director Lori Funderwhite said vehicles had struck buildings, and the alley had no ADA-compliant parking. Construction started in September 2024. The project was expected to take about 12 months.

Phase One opened July 2, 2026. It added a two-way alley, parking, sidewalks, accessible spaces and a plaza. The new lot has about the same number of spaces as the old one, but now cars and pedestrians are kept apart. The city describes the plaza on the west side of Courthouse Square as shaded picnic and common space.

Pending litigation from adjacent property owners forced a redesign partway through construction. That added about nine months and split the work into two phases. Phase Two covers the strip of old alley between the businesses' rear doors and the new lot. The city plans to bury the overhead power lines there and resurface the old asphalt. Conduit for those lines went in during Phase One. City renderings show a more finished surface that could eventually allow outdoor seating right behind the storefronts.

So the part of the project closest to those back doors, the ones customers use most, is still ahead. As of The Citizen's September 21 report, Phase Two had not started, and we found no published start date after it. A city notice from July said the work next to the west-side businesses would wrap up "this summer." That estimate has now passed.

While Phase One was underway, the Downtown Development Authority paid adjacent businesses hardship grants. A business could get up to $1,500 for any month it documented a revenue loss against the same month the year before, and that rose to $2,500 during Phase One's final four months. Those grants ended when Phase One opened in July. That means October's crowds land between the two phases, with the grant support over and the next round of work not yet scheduled. Mueller told the paper her family still wants clearer word on when Phase Two will start and how customers, delivery trucks and people who need the accessible rear entrance will get in during that work.

October on the Square, Date by Date

The city and its Main Street program are encouraging neighboring businesses to use the new plaza for events. None of the October event listings mention it, but most of the month's events happen within a short walk of it.

Woofstock is a fundraiser for local animal rescues. The lineup includes Dock Dogs demonstrations, an animal blessing led by FFUMC, the Smoky Lynn Band and a DJ, a Bluey and Bingo appearance, adoptions, food trucks and dog cooling stations. There's also a charity dunk tank and a silent auction, and organizers ask visitors to bring donations from the rescues' wish lists. Town at Trilith lists Luftgekühlt 12 the same day, so Fayette County will have two big Saturday draws on October 10.

The Cemetery Walk is a guided tour from the Friends of the Historic Fayetteville City Cemetery. This year's tour features eight honorees and how each one shaped Fayette County history. Check-in is at a tent in the Fayetteville City Hall parking lot. Organizers ask guests to arrive 10 to 15 minutes before their ticket time. The Friday tour overlaps with the movie night at City Center Park, which is behind City Hall, so October 16 will be one of the most crowded evenings of the month around Stonewall Avenue.

The Great Pumpkin Walk is a display of pumpkins entered by schools, churches, businesses and other groups. Registration closes Monday, October 12, and entry is free. Pumpkins go out on October 19 and 20. The listing runs the display through October 28, but it also says entrants can take their pumpkins home starting Sunday, October 25, so the fullest display is likely the week before that.

The Great Pumpkin Fest fills the Square with an inflatable corn maze, a pumpkin bounce and slide, costume contests for kids and dogs, bobbing for donuts, a petting zoo, a DJ, vendors and trick-or-treating. It also has hayrides to the Lee Street Fire Department and pumpkin decorating hosted by Art of Landscaping.

Where the Fences Are This Month

The alley isn't the only construction downtown. On September 29 the city announced closures at two parks. All of Church Street Park, at 250 Church Street, closed September 30 so crews could install a full restroom. That has been a top resident request for several years, and it's funded with 2023 SPLOST money. The City Center Park playgrounds close Monday, October 5, when crews put up construction fencing. The junior playground is being replaced, and new features are going onto the older-kids' playground.

The city expects each job to take four to six weeks, weather permitting. For City Center Park, that points to sometime between early and mid-November. Public Services Director Cajen Rhodes said the rest of City Center Park stays open during the work, which means Woofstock and the movie night still have their lawn, just without the playgrounds. Patriot Park on Redwine Road, Dickson Springs Park on Helen Sams Parkway and The Ridge Nature Area at the end of Burch Road are open as usual.

For families with small kids, that changes the plan. On the October 10 and 16 events, the kids' activity comes from the event itself. The playground at City Center Park won't be there to fill the gaps between activities.

A Pumpkin Fest Evening, Planned From the Alley

Main Street Fayetteville says downtown has free parking. None of the October event pages include a parking map, so here's how the alley fits into a Saturday on the Square:

1. Park in the new alley lot on the west side of the Square. It has the accessible spaces, and it keeps you off Glynn Street's sidewalk steps.
2. Walk across the plaza to the Square for the Fest's 4 p.m. start, and catch the pumpkin display before entrants start taking pumpkins home on the 25th.
3. Have dinner on the same block you parked behind: Gremlin Growlers, Olde Court House Tavern or LaFayette's Bon Temps Tavern. All three are on South Glynn between 101 and 115.
4. Use the back door. For the tavern, that's the entrance most customers have always used, and it's the one with no steps.

The Graves family has kept up live music and community events through the construction. Mueller said the plaza could eventually bring more people downtown. Phase Two still has no start date. The Great Pumpkin Fest is set for Saturday, October 24, from 4 to 8 p.m.

At Intown Focus Realty, we follow projects like the Glynn Street alley because they affect how a downtown block works long before they show up in property values. If you own a home near Courthouse Square and want to know how changes like Phase Two may factor into your home's value over the next year, request your home valuation and we'll go over it with you, block by block.