FAYETTEVILLE -- Residents on the south side of town take pride in its alternative vibe.
Someone painted a rainbow on a guardrail on Washington Avenue between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and South Street. A handmade metal statue of a monster-looking thing looms over Jason Jones' lawn on Rock Street. Local artist Olivia Trimble's painted sign on an empty building on South College Avenue tells passers-by to "Share Something Beautiful."
The area has gone through plenty of changes over the years but has seen a bit of a resurgence as of late, said Rob Lewis, co-owner of City Lumber, which has called South School Avenue home since 1959. A crop of up-and-coming businesses and young people who have taken an affinity to that part of town has played no small part in that, he said.
"I think it's all good. I think it's all great," Lewis said. "I like seeing the dynamic part of it. I like to see the new people mixing in. I like the property values going up."
That's not to say the area hasn't experienced loss. Marvin's IGA at 1620 S. School Ave., which served as the only grocery store within a walkable distance for many residents, closed in March. Brenda's Bigger Burger, a staple of MLK Boulevard for nearly 50 years, shut down in November 2012. Jefferson Elementary School faded away in 2007.
However, an adult education center has since replaced the elementary school. The University of Arkansas has a plan to make the old burger spot a part of its art and design district. A Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market moved in on MLK Boulevard near the railroad overpass about a year before Marvin's closed.
An 'organic' operation
Natalie Freeman, owner of Freckled Hen Farmhouse, took advantage of the rotating cast of available spaces to give her online store a brick-and-mortar home at 572 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The momentum she gained from social media translated to publicity with a mention in Better Homes and Gardens to feet shuffling and eyes browsing in what Freeman calls her "modern-day general store."
Having a Neighborhood Market next door also helps. That and local establishments such as Crimson and Clover, Heartwood Gallery and the Art Experience in the same area help Freeman's shop blend in with the surroundings, she said.
"It's been amazing. People are so excited to have something in south Fayetteville for retail," Freeman said. "I don't get why more people don't move here. It's wonderful."
The city's push for infill development and encouragement of "tactical urbanism," which refers to when residents take it upon themselves to create crosswalks and other traffic safety features with makeshift materials, plays into what Jake Killcrece, 20, loves about his hometown.
Killcrece and his friend Dani Knox, 20, enjoyed Thursday afternoon at the Green Goat. Neighbors created their own colorful crosswalk across South Wood Avenue and the Green Goat has its two food trucks on the corner at the four-way stop with MLK Boulevard. Owner Erin Walsh lives at the house behind the trucks and the giant mural painted by local artist Octavio Logo.
"They're doing the infill thing and everything's so compact. It's feeling more like a city and not like a country town," Killcrece said. "You've got Elkins and it's just one strip, but over here you've got roads and you never know what's around the next corner. You just drive down here and you see this place."
Knox said something like food trucks on someone's front lawn and residents painting all over the street would never fly in southern California, where she's from.
"It's pretty illegal," Knox said. "You'd have like five permits and people coming by all the time. We have some hole-in-the wall places, but nothing like this."
Walsh said the Downtown General zoning district allows her to live and operate her business on the same property. She loves how everyone helps each other in south Fayetteville. Often she'll trade food for someone to remove invasive plants from the yard. Rather than shoo away homeless people, she'll offer them what she can.
"It truly is an 'organic' operation," Walsh said.
'We complement each other'
The Planning Commission in April approved a conditional use permit so the Artist's Laboratory Theatre can be in a former church at 1030 S. College Ave.
Artistic Director Erika Wilhite said the program's popularity grew after moving its office and a stage to the building late last year, garnering positive and negative attention from neighbors.
"We were like, 'Oh no wait, this is starting to shape our identity.' So, we went door to door and we got 17 surveys from our immediate neighbors," she said. "To their faces, we asked them how are we doing, what can we do differently and also what programming do you want to see? We took advantage of that opportunity to meet everyone."
The nonprofit group uses a variety of venues across Northwest Arkansas but has set its anchor in south Fayetteville. The idea is to have the arts reach people who wouldn't otherwise get such exposure, like at-risk youth, jail inmates and the homeless. Neighbors also use the space to hold community meetings. Wilhite wasn't sure if the operation would mesh as well in other parts of town.
"This area suits our identity better," she said. "We complement each other."
Business owners of the area also help each other out. Wilhite said Bear's Place, which lies on 15th Street between a family farm where folks pick their own strawberries and a Christian preschool, offered to hold a fundraiser for the Artist's Lab.
"Bear," or Barry Bramlett, opened the bar/restaurant/venue for fledgling artists with the style of '90s Dickson Street in mind. Boars' heads, antique guns and vintage signs adorn the walls inside Bear's Place. Outside, the front door indicates the place opens "when the door is unlocked" and closes "when Bear feels like going home."
Bramlett has a calendar book filled with acts he has never heard of and he prefers it that way. By his own account, the bands he does know are "so damn good it'll knock your socks off." Others end up being a pleasant surprise, like a woman Bramlett booked who presented nothing more than a business card.
"She comes in here and she sat on that stage for three hours and sang a cappella," he said. "You know what a cappella is? It was really pretty frigging incredible. And she didn't have no front teeth. She came up here in a cab and she got out and I'm like, 'Oh God, what have I done?'"
The spontaneity of the musical acts, and of south Fayetteville, was an easy draw for Bramlett, who could have spent his years resting on his laurels. Instead, he operates Bear's Place seven days a week.
"I retired from AT&T and I'm like, what was I thinking? What the hell was I thinking?" he said jokingly. "I could be riding a motorcycle. I could be, like, doing nothing right now. Mowing my yard, taking care of business at home. But no, somebody said, 'Buy a bar man, it's fun.'"
NW News on 05/29/2017