Renovations to two historic buildings in downtown Washington hold promise for the city’s central business district. So do renovations to the building that houses the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce.

Old City Hall, also known as the De Mille Building, is being renovated so it can house Rachel K’s Bakery. The Fowle Building is being renovated so it, apparently, can be home to a ground-floor brewpub and apartments on its upper floors. If those renovations are successful, they should help breathe new life into buildings that once played a key role in the city’s history and economy.

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings, for the most part, is a good thing. It preserves history, finds new uses for old buildings and usually adds to the area’s economy. That’s what the proposed uses for these two buildings would do. Also, the bakery and the brewpub likely will result in a few jobs being created. Apartments in the old Fowle Building will help provide more housing options in the city. The renovated buildings and their new uses also would add to the city’s tax base.

As for improvements to the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters along Stewart Parkway, they will enhance what’s already an attractive building.

It’s heartening to see people willing to invest their money and time in preserving old buildings by renovating them and putting them to use. Otherwise, those old structures likely would sit empty and slowly deteriorate because of lack of use, if not neglect. Washington’s historic district has lost too many structures because of nonuse that leads to neglect.

The adaptive reuses of old City Hall and the Fowle Building are not the first adaptive reuses of historic buildings in Washington. Just look at the Washington Civic Center, once an abandoned railroad warehouse. Hopefully, they won’t be the last adaptive reuses in the city.