It was behind there, we knew. We just needed a way to uncover it.

Let me start a few years back to lay the foundation. In 2012, when we were renovating our historic office building on 83 S. Main Street in downtown Harrisonburg, we discovered graffiti from the 1890’s on the plaster on one of our walls. Although we were delighted to stumble upon such a great discovery, we needed to continue with our office renovation and carefully cover it up behind drywall. To document it, we had our photographer friend (Ashley Swartz) come in and take pictures (you can view the photo gallery here).

Fast forward to last year when we learned about Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance’s Destination Downtown Grant. Wouldn’t it be neat if we could find a way to re-open that graffiti? And still have a way to hang art in our gallery and function as a real estate office? Our brainstorming juices began to flow…and after more conversations and planning, we decided to apply for the grant! After we submitted it, we waited for decisions to be made…and we were very excited when we found out that we did in fact receive a partial grant! We were also able to partner with Kline May Realty, Charles Hendricks of Gaines Group Architects, and Herr & Co. to help bring this project to fruition!

Herr & Co. began construction of our door and track system (from plans designed by Charles Hendricks) late 2018. Scroll through the photos for a behind-the-scenes look at our progress!