The Museum of Main Street was established in 1986. The original location was first 9, then 13 East Main Street in downtown Buford. The museum has always been funded by A.R. “Randy” Wood, Sandra “Sandy” Sumner, and donations from within the community. In the 1990s, Randy realized that Buford was in the middle of a major transition on Main Street. Many of the early Main Street stores were closing. He began to ask businesses if he could have their signs and any other memorabilia.

Many of the display cases came from the basements of closed stores.  Larry Bailey donated a lot of material including the trophy collection from the Bona Allen Shoemakers baseball team.  Randy also received a sizable donation of leather tools from David Mabry and Pat Garner.  After fifteen years of collecting historical items, Wood and Sumner moved to Robbinsville, NC.  Lynn A. Bowman then agreed to continue the tradition of the museum and became the custodian of the collection.