Mount Hope ready for "Takeover"

The city of Mount Hope is preparing its application for HGTV’s new six-episode special event series, “Home Town Takeover,” which is slated to air on the Home and Garden channel sometime in 2021.

According to HGTV, this ambitious new series “Home Town Takeover” is a spinoff of the channel’s current show “Home Town,” where for the past three seasons (season four premiered on Jan.20), couple Ben and Erin Napier have spent their time restoring and revitalizing old or historic homes in their hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.

Through the show, The Napiers not only brought life back into Laurel, but they also helped inspire the entire community to transform the town’s empty storefronts and houses that were in disrepair, turning the Laurel into a thriving destination for tourists and locals alike.

“…they’ve played a pivotal role in helping revitalize the city’s downtown while preserving and celebrating the town’s architectural treasures, endemic charm and historic features,” stated an HGTV article promoting the new series.

On Nov. 11, Erin Napier spread the announcement of their upcoming show on her Instagram:

“BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: We are taking #HGTVHomeTown on the road to help bring one struggling hometown back to life!”

Napier extended the invite to small towns in need of restoration that have homes with beautiful architecture in need of some love.

On Jan. 8 the couple took to NBC’s Today Show to share even more insight on this new and innovative event-series.

In order to apply, any citizen of a small town (population 40,000 or less) who loves their own hometown needs to submit an application and submission video that highlights aspects of their town that make it special, fascinating, historic, or unique. This can include distinctive features like vintage period architecture, special destinations or a classic main street.

Once the lucky town is chosen, the Napiers, alongside their team of renovation professionals, will come in and restore multiple individual family homes as well as revitalize public spaces such as parks, local diners or restaurants and outdoor recreational areas.

In an interview with HGTV Ben Napier shared his and his wife’s reasoning for the upcoming series stating, “Renovating one house at a time is an awesome experience. But the chance to support an entire town, where we help bring a community back to life- that’s something we’ve always wanted to try.”

“This is a big one,” Erin added. “HGTV has never, ever taken on a whole-town renovation and restoration project, and we’re so proud and excited to be leading the team that will get it done. Show us those photos and videos. Tell us what makes your town special and how you’d like us to help make it better. You may see us in your town soon.”

Carrie Kidd- a Mount Hope native, AmeriCorps member and founder of the non-profit Harmony for Hope, which works to unite Southern West Virginia communities through music and art projects- heard HGTV’s call and decided to send in an application for her beloved hometown.

Working as the project coordinator for the Mount Hope Revitalization Coalition, alongside her other attributions, Kidd has been working to revitalize and preserve Mount Hope’s historical assets and add new area attractions for years.

Kidd shared that for a long time her concern was how to revitalize Mount Hope’s building and tie in all that historical heritage, while at the same time opening the town to new opportunities such as festivals and shows.

“This is what we’ve been looking for!” Kidd shared. “This is perfect for our town…I can see that this TV show will really just provide us with the capital that’s needed to really let Mount Hope just take off. We’ve already put a lot of investment into, you know, building the community, getting the community buy-in, working with organizations that are ready to back up any investor that wants to come in.”

When Kidd heard about this opportunity through HGTV, she stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the application. When that was completed all she needed was help filming a submission video that would really spotlight Mount Hope’s potential.

After doing some networking, Kidd was able to secure two separate filming sessions: one with LLyniuM Entertainment out of Princeton and one with iHeart church’s media team.

Shooting for both videos was scheduled for the week of Jan. 19, which allows for plenty of time for the video to be edited and submitted in time for the Feb. 4 deadline.

“Mount Hope is known for being divisive and while that can still be true at times, the majority of people still come together for the overall good of the town. We are just working to bring all these groups together to make this happen for our town. They want this to happen. Mount Hope wants to be recognized. This is a great opportunity and we are keeping our fingers crossed. We want our video to go viral and just blow HGTV up.”

For updates on the spinoff show, visit HGTV.com/HomeTown.