Eureka Mural Walk

Eureka Old Town Mural and Historical Walk

Description:  Some of the most interesting walks have turned out to be incredibly close to home. Case in point is this meandering journey through Eureka’s commercial district and Old Town (an 11-block long, three-block wide district of Late Victorian, Greek Revival, Classical Revival storefronts and residences recognized on the National Register of Historic Places) designed to pass nearly two dozen murals that decorate Eureka and, in the process, get a taste of the historic architecture of the area. There may be a few cars to dodge but no streams to ford. And unless you get really lost, you won’t come home with your shoes muddy.

The route:

From the Library lot, go west on 3^rd Street to ‘M’ Street and turn right to 2nd.  Turn left on 2nd Street.

BUILDING – Carson Mansion, 2^nd and ‘M’ Streets – Outside of our redwood forests and stunning coastline, the most iconic (and photographed) symbol of the North Coast. William Carson had this house designed and built by the Newsom Brothers between 1884-86 in the Victorian style (technically a larger classification that includes Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, Eastlake, and Queen Anne styles).  Across from the mansion is a second home, also designed by the Newsoms.  It was built in 1887 as a gift from Carson to his son.  It is an example of classic Queen Anne style with the corner tower, segmented windows, and a variety of patterned shingles. The structure housing the law offices on the northwest corner was built during the same period as the two houses and served as the headquarters for Carson’s lumber empire (which once sprawled across the bay front along the now empty expanse of Halverson Park and beyond)

There is a narrow walkway on the north side of the Carson Mansion, just a handful of steps beyond your turn on 2nd Street, that hosts Jose Moreno’s “Lost Coast Fauna in 17 Views” and offers a view over Halverson Park and Woodley Island.

After walking one block west on 2nd, turn left on ‘L’ for two blocks and right on 4th Street

BUILDING – Carter House – northwest corner of ‘3^rd’ and ‘L’ is a replica of a house designed by the Newsoms and built in San Francisco in 1884.

MURAL – Animals are People Too

905 4^th Street between ‘J’ and ‘K’ Streets (on the east side of Courthouse Market)

At 4th and ‘I’ Street, take a left to appreciate Blake Regan and Lucas Thornton’s MURAL “We Built this City” high on the west side of the county courthouse. To appreciate the mural you need to view it from the west sidewalk on ‘I’ Street. About face and walk to 3rd Street and turn left.  Turn right on ‘G’ Street and left on 2nd.

MURAL – The Gray Victorian

723 3^rd Street between H and I (east wall)

MURALS – Cityscape by Dan Kitchener

At the corner of Opera Alley and ‘G’

The success of Kitchener’s project served as the catalyst for the Street Art Festival which started the next year, 2018. That year the Festival focused on the five blocks between “H’ and ‘C’ Street and generated some 20 murals

BUILDING – Vance Hotel, 2^nd and ‘G’ Streets – Originally completed in 1871, the first electric lights in a non-industrial building in the county were installed here eight years later (powered by a generator at Vance’s sawmill at the foot of ‘G’ Street). For decades this was the most prestigious lodging place on Humboldt Bay, but by the 1990s it stood empty until it was remodeled in 2000.

At 516 2^nd Street is the Greene Lily, the site of the Oberon saloon (1878) where, in July 1911, a legendary fistfight broke out between writer/adventurer/socialist Jack London and the future owner of The Pacific Lumber Company, 19-year-old A. Stanwood Murphy.

Take a right on ‘F’ Street and follow it two blocks to the boardwalk that fronts the Bay between ‘C’ and ‘G’ Streets.  Follow this promenade west to ‘C’ and the Fisherman’s Terminal where you can access the Madaket (last remaining of seven launches that once ferried people to a number of locations around the Bay) tours and admire several sculptures. Return to 1^st Street by turning left; then turn left to continue back on 1^st.

MURAL – Bearymore, the Great Winged Grizzly

220 1^st Street between ‘C’ and ‘D’ Streets

You will pass one of the only remaining warehouses that once lined this street, now the wonderfully refurbished home of Dick Taylor Chocolate Factory (complete with tasting room). At the corner of 1st and ‘E’, a memorial is planned to acknowledge the racist 1885 expulsion of Chinese residents.

BUILDINGS: You will also pass Buhne’s General Store (c1858), 41st Street, Eureka’s oldest commercial building (between ‘E’ and ‘F’).  And across the street, 422 1st Street, was H. H. Buhne’s hardware store.  Buhne was the first of the new wave of emigrants to cross the bar into the bay.

MURAL – Wild Seas

1^st Street between ‘G’ and ‘F’ Street

BUILDING – 112 ‘F’ Street – This Stick/Eastlake style building is on the National Register of Historic Places (1893)

Turn right on ‘F’ Street for one and a half blocks to Opera Alley. Turn right (do your best to ignore the first half block that really feels like a seedy alley, a feeling that will return periodically on this walk) and absorb some of the murals from the 2018 Street Art Festival.  As you turn note the stunning Carson Block building to your left at 227 ‘F’ Street. In 1891, William Carson, anxious to create a positive community spirit in the face of a logging recession, built this massive office building. It included the 1,400 seat Ingomar Theatre (closed in 1923 and gutted in 1958). The building received a $5.3 million facelift and seismic retrofit in 2016.

At Opera Alley and ‘E’ Street, particularly noteworthy is the MURAL – “The Sun Set Twice on the People That Day” by Brian Tripp and Alme Allen that speaks to the 1860 horrendous massacre of some 200 Wiyot people on Tulawat Island. It was mounted on this addition to the Clark Museum (3^rd and ‘E’ Street) which is itself on the National Register of Historic Places. Formerly the Bank of Eureka building (1911).

At Opera Alley and ‘C’ Street you will have Mendenhall Studios to your right and ‘C’ Street Studios across from you. Note the Inn at 2nd and ‘C’ which was built in 1888 in the Queen Anne style originally served those traveling by steamship. But, turn left to the alley between 4th and 5th. As you cross 3rd Street, look to the east to catch Blake Regan’s mural “Skyhorse Rising”. [There is a wonderful mural on the south face of the Eureka Co-op between ‘A’ and ‘B’ on 4th and other interesting murals between 3rd and 6th on ‘A’ Street but we will leave those for another time.]

Follow this alley, known as Charlie Moon Way, passing several colorful murals between ‘C’ and ‘D’.  Just after the corner building on the northeast side of ‘D’ Street, you will see a narrow 3-inch separation between two buildings.  This is the location of the Hidden MURAL (mentioned in the Description of this walk) – “Where Eureka Meets the San Francisco Earthquake”.  Use the flashlight on your smartphone to peer into the gap.

As you emerge at the corner of Charlie Moon Way and ‘E’ Street, you will be greeted by several murals from the 2021 Eureka Street Mural Festival and the more distant iconic mural on the back of the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts – “Tribute to Architecture and Performing Arts”. Among the murals from 2021 was Dave Kim’s, purposefully sited in the middle of Eureka’s Chinatown that, until 1885, served as home to more than 200 immigrants. Kim’s image includes a Mandarin duck and Ben Chin, the first Chinese American to open a business in Eureka in 1955, 70 years after the mass expulsion of these Chinese workers. (See the Chinatown Walk sidebar)

Turn right on ‘E’ Street and proceed to 6th Street.

MURAL – “Play within a Play”

On the south side of Wells Fargo Advisors and Starbucks at the west end of the parking lot, ‘E’ and 5^th Street

Check out the south side of the Picky Picky Picky Store and then walk south on 6th to ‘G’ Street.  This area has a number of murals from the 2019 Festival.  Be sure and look up to see the artwork between ‘E’ and ‘F’ Streets on the south side of 6th.  If you have not had your fill of art, consider stopping at the Morris Graves Museum of Art (636 ‘F’ Street; open 12 – 5 pm Wednesday – Sunday).

BUILDING – Eureka Theatre (1939) – On the National Register of Historic Places.

BUILDING – Carnegie Building/Morris Graves Museum of Art – On the National Register of Historic Places (1903)

Turn left on ‘G’ Street passing the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts and continuing to 3rd Street.

BUILDING – 412 ‘G’ Street – The Arkley Center for the Performing Arts is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1919 as the Sweasey Theater-Loew’s State Theater.

MURAL – Alley Cats

G Street between 4^th and 5^th

Walk to ‘E’ Street (4 blocks) and turn left after locating the “Play within a Play” mural. Walk to 3^rd Street (3 blocks).  Right on 3rd and make the walk back to the Library parking lot.