On Wednesday, USA Today announced that 25th Street placed third in the Best Main Street category as part of its annual 10Best Reader’s Choice Awards. This is the second year in a row in which the city finished third. Emporia, Kansas, finished second while Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, took the top spot in the 2025 contest.

Visit Ogden Director of Marketing and Communications Taylor Hartman told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that it’s exciting to see Historic 25th Street finish strong once again.

“We were just overjoyed to hear that we made the top three again, for the second year in a row,” he said. “It’s such a point of pride for the community. 25th Street is such an anchor point for our community. It’s a hub, everybody knows it, and to have that ranking again and to have voters from all over the United States tell us what we believe to be true — that we have one of the coolest Main Streets around — that means a lot to both us at Visit Ogden and to the community.”

He said a top-three finish is a big accomplishment for the city.

“It took a lot of work for us to get the word out and to encourage people to vote,” he said. “All of our competitors were reaching out to their communities and encouraging people to vote. It was a pretty lively voting process. It means a lot to be recognized, not only in Utah, but nationally. I feel (it) is something that’s really big and something that we can hang our hat on.”

Hartman said that contests like this do serve a purpose.

“It’s always good to be top — people look for that,” he said. “When people are deciding to visit a place and when people are looking for differentiators and what makes us stand out when they’re thinking about coming here, having an award-winning main street is something that really helps.”

He added the ranking also says a lot about how Historic 25th Street and its perception has evolved over the years.

“Ogden’s 25th Street has had a lot of different histories and many identities over the years,” he said. “A ranking like this proves that revitalization is taking place, and it’s taking place in a world-class way.”

Ogden has fared well in other USA Today 10Best contests in the past. In 2016, Ogden took fifth in the Best Main Street contest. The city has also been nominated in the Best Ski Town contest twice, taking fifth in 2019 and being named runner-up in 2023.