Down an alleyway known as Jarrett Court in the Elk City historic district of Charleston’s West Side is a faded 1900s-era commercial mural. The ad was once a promotion for Gold Medal Flour.
It lives on the side of the building that houses Elk City Records, one of the area’s newest businesses.
Local artist Kayleigh Phillips, 26, is in the process of restoring the sign, but updating it with a focus for the community so it’s not just an old ad. The effort is one component of transforming the area into a revitalized, art-friendly community.
Charleston Urban Renewal Authority is working on a West Side Community Development plan — which includes rehabilitation of existing structures, visual elements of streets and infrastructure improvements — and a strategic urban renewal plan for Downtown Charleston near the East End and West Side districts. The latter includes creating a West Side Square between Indiana and Bigley avenues along Washington Street West, according to CURA plan documents.
Advocates for Charleston’s West Side are leading the efforts to bring public art to the area.
“We’re trying to go for a walkable, art-friendly and affordable community,” Tighe Bullock said.
Bullock, 28, is president of Bullock Properties and Crawford Holdings. He works with his father, John Bullock, who is president and CEO of Gaddy Engineering Company.
The two have been restoring historical buildings in what once was downtown Elk City, a town located on Charleston’s West Side that was a stand-alone city until the early 1900s when it was absorbed by Charleston.
By restoring the area one storefront at a time, more businesses and residents have the opportunity to move into Elk City. As they work on repairing and restoring, artists like Phillips are adding color to the place.
Phillips got her start in graphic design and advertising, which gave her an appreciation for hand-lettering. She has worked on storefront painting and lettering for Kin Ship Goods, Base Camp Printing, Elk City Records, Bully Trap Barber Shop, and MESH Design and Development in Elk City. Her latest job is the Gold Medal Flour sign.
“It took us awhile to figure it out,” Phillips said. “I did some research because all you could read was ‘Gold,’ and you could kind of read ‘Eventually.’ So it reads: ‘Eventually Gold Medal Flour. Why not now?’”
The original painting included a silhouette of a building and trees. Phillips will use the same design concept and lettering of the original but change the wording. The new mural will read, “Eventually Elk City, but why not now?” and will feature a silhouette of Elk City’s buildings.
Connected to the Gold Medal Flour ad is Phillips’ newly painted black mural with yellow lettering that says, “Jarrett Court.”
The Jarret Court alley connects West Washington Street with Lee Street West.
The historic district of Elk City covers portions of Bigley Avenue, Jarrett Court, Lee Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, Tennessee Avenue and West Washington Street.
“It used to be its own city,” Tighe Bullock said. “It actually had its own mayor and city council and charter. It got absorbed by Charleston, I think in the early 1900s, and that’s why it has its own little unique downtown area.
“The architecture is a little bit different than downtown Charleston. It had its own vibe that was different from Charleston’s, and they wanted it to be different. It did maintain its own character and its own flavor.”
John Bullock said if the area can attract artists to create there, other industries and businesses will follow. If you can bring in art, you can bring in people, he said.
“We believe that that is the way to build a community,” John Bullock said. “Artists will come here, like this environment, and then accountants and engineers and lawyers will come to be in the community. That will attract restaurants.”
Eventually, Tighe Bullock envisions the streets of Elk City’s historic district to be full of public art, like a free art gallery that’s accessible anytime. He said he hopes more people will walk around the area rather than driving by or through it.
“You don’t have to pay for public art,” Tighe Bullock said. “You don’t have to have a ticket and go into a gallery. You can do it on your time. It doesn’t have to be when the museum is open or when the gallery is open. You can enjoy it pretty much anytime at your leisure, and you can take what you want from it.
“You can bring your kids there. I’d like to see this area become kind of like a walking, outside art gallery with either no theme at all or just an overarching theme of community development and historic preservation.”
Work by Phillips, in addition to the large and colorful “West Side Wonder Mural” at the corner of Washington Street and Tennessee Avenue and the four recently added local artist-painted planter boxes around the West Side are just the start.
Originally from Logan, Phillips lived in Asheville, North Carolina, a few years before moving to Charleston last year. She said she moved back to the area because she felt Asheville grew stagnant, and here she could make a larger difference, and find more consistent work.
“I see a lot of similarities between the two cities, because 15 years ago there was nothing going on there,” she said. “It had went through a decline, and it was pretty intense. I know a lot of people who didn’t want to live there, and they moved away but then came back.
“What had happened was a couple of artists had moved there, into some of the old buildings, and brought it up, made it pretty. They started opening restaurants. I think that’s a key component because that’s immediate jobs.”
And the smaller area brings more appreciation for the artwork and more value to the artist.
“You go to New York and you try to apply for a mural, there’s 100,000 people who applied for the same job,” Phillips said. “It’s cool, and the big cities are great, but it makes a big difference to everyone here when a mural gets painted. In New York, someone is like, ‘It’s just another mural. That’s cool.’”
Phillips was paid $3,500 for the Jarrett Court mural from the Bullocks and with funds from part of a CURA grant.
“If the A/C guy came in and said $3,500, we’d say that’s way too much,” John Bullock said. “But you don’t do that with artists because you want to show that you appreciate art, and you want to promote the arts and value art and recognize its value.”
Many blank canvases remain untouched still in Elk City as the community waits for the art, and the artists, to come.
“I’d like to see more murals and any other kind of medium of art in the neighborhood that shows people that there is something going on here,” Tighe Bullock said, “that people do care.”
Reach Anna Taylor at
304-348-4881 or follow
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