It's the most populated city in eastern Kentucky, and it's also in the running for the best cityscape in the nation.

Ashland, Kentucky, which is located in Boyd County, is making strides to attract downtown businesses and bring in more visitors.

Our Emily Sisk paid the city a visit for tonight's segment of Monday's on Main.

Ashland, Kentucky, of the mid-20th century was known for its industries like steel, oil and the railroad.

Today, the city is home to around 21,000 people.

Ashland mayor said its downtown businesses and even its art pieces pay homage to the city's heritage.

We have become, from an industrial focus to more medical, more service related, and it's becoming a shopping location.

And for restaurants downtown Ashland boasts around 35 local businesses, all within a few blocks.

And right in the middle is the Paramount Arts Center.

It opened in 1931 and was owned by none other than the Paramount Pictures film company.

The idea was Paramount Pictures wanted to make a quality arts organization a building to house the arts organization in every single state in the United States.

They picked the location of each Paramount Arts Center based off what city they thought was going to thrive.

And because we were on the river and the steel industry and coal industry, they thought that we could become something like Savannah, Georgia, or something like that.

Because of the Great Depression, Paramount Pictures had to stop construction after finishing around a dozen of its theaters.

That might not have worked out for Paramount Pictures, but it definitely worked out for Ashland.

There were over 90 years into having this beautiful, beautiful building in our tri state.

Even if you've never stepped inside the Paramount Arts Center, you might have seen it before as the location for a famous music video.

Think probably the most notable Billy Ray Cyrus did his Achy Breaky Heart video in the Paramount.

You can see at the beginning with the marquee up today, the Arts Center hosts concerts, theater productions and festivals.

Education director Matt Hammond said the Paramount serves more than 50,000 students each year.

My favorite thing about watching kids come in here is they walk in, they look up, and for some of these rural counties in this area, you don't get to experience quality performing arts.

So far, I think the most expensive ticket we have for an educational show this year was $10.

That's an experience that can't be replicated and needs to be preserved.

Preservation of local history is what the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center is all about.

Located just a couple blocks down from the Paramount, the museum showcases the history of the Tri-State.

We do country music.

We do industry.

We do clothing and textiles.

There's also an interactive space for little ones.

My favorites is actually when it's a grandparent bringing a child because we have the child, the children's area for the kids.

But then grandpa can say, okay, well, now we're going to go look at the exhibit about Paul Blaser because he was over Ashland Oil.

And that's something I remember.

The museum curator said some people in town are still discovering the attraction, but she believes it brightens up the downtown scene.

I hear from people all the time.

They had no idea it was here.

They had no idea there was something like this in Ashland, and there are many other sites to see.

From the river port to an old arcade.

We have the Cameo Arcade, which is down here on Winchester.

It's the oldest mall in Kentucky.

It's going to celebrate its 100th year next year.

We have three statues that were actually donated to the city, so it really depict, a lot of our history and how we were, connected to steel making.

And they're the largest, as I understand, the largest, statues of that type on a river port.

You can find it.

And there they're gorgeous.

For Celesta Koonce, the executive director of Visit.

Why, it's her mission to bring in folks from all over to see Ashland and maybe find their new home.

Of course, we want them to come in and tour here and be here, but how awesome would it be if they fell in love with it and came back and stayed?

What we have here is something special.

I truly believe that.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Emily Sisk.

Thank you Emily.

It is special this weekend.

The Paramount Arts Center kicks off its annual Festival of Trees and Trains.

It's a holiday fundraiser that supports the historic arts center.

And get this.

Ashland has the second largest festival of trees in the entire country.