The Nacogdoches Downtown Business Association was founded in 1983 by John Schmidt and Charlie Mack Bailey, two downtown business owners. The mission statement reads "To develop, promote and/or further the commercial trade of all retail, professional, and service establishments of downtown Nacogdoches "

In the early years, the DBA was responsible for organizing sidewalk sales, joint advertising, and holding meetings each month for the members to exchange ideas and work out problems.

In the past twelve years, the DBA has taken a more active role in shaping the future of the downtown area. With the help of others, downtown has become much more attractive, with beautiful landscaping on the square and Mound and Main parking lot, trash receptacles, benches, and period lighting fixtures. The DBA has been responsible for:

	Music To Lunch by on the Square - a series of free concerts each April and October (now part of the Main Street program)
	The Progressive Dinner Party - a fund raiser held each fall to raise money for Christmas lights for the downtown area
	The "Oldest Christmas In Texas" festival held in December. This festival became so successful and large, a separate entity was formed to run it under the name "The Nine Flags Festival"
	Our members joined the request to separate the tourism effort and establish the Conventions & Visitors Bureau
	Our members led the request and made the application for Nacogdoches to become a Texas Main Street City
	Our members led the request to establish the Historic Overlay for the downtown area
	Rerouting of unnecessary truck traffic in the downtown area
	Reducing the speed limit to be more pedestrian friendly
	THE REMOVAL OF THE PARKING METERS!
	Recognition of long time establishments, i.e. Shaw's Department Store, Greer Fabrics

Our membership consists of merchants, restaurants, financial institutes, professionals, property owners, non-profits, and friends. Our funding comes from membership dues, donations, and various fund raisers. We do not have any paid employees, but have an elected board and have had interns from SFA in the past. Our monies are used for:

	Joint advertising campaigns, the latest being commercials run on cable TV featuring downtown stores
	Clean up of graffiti
	Donations to the statues placed in the downtown area
	Purchase of trash receptacles
	Purchase of flowers to be planted in the downtown area
	Joint effort to pay for repainting of trash receptacles with the CVB
	Gifts (plants/flowers) to new businesses

The DBA has worked closely with the City Commission and City staff to implement programs benefiting the downtown area. Our members frequently attend City Commission meetings when items on the agenda pertain to downtown or items that we feel would have an effect on tourism and/or have a negative effect on Nacogdoches as a whole, i.e. sign ordinances, demolition of properties, regulating of funds.

Over the years, the DBA has evolved from being an association concerned only with issues such as sidewalk sales and flower planting, to being the watchdogs and guardians of the most historic buildings and surrounding area in "The Oldest Town In Texas".