News

Store in 600 block getting two new Coca-Cola murals

A painting crew made progress Tuesday on a new Coca-Cola mural in the 600 block of North Main Street.

By Bill Moss, Published: June 11, 2015

Mark Ray thinks two new Coca-Cola murals could mark one more step toward the revitalization of the 600 block of North Main Street.

The last segment in the city’s makeover and infrastructure replacement downtown, the 600 block could see a surge in tourism interest and local visitors as it gets more stores. Bright red Coca-Cola signs on both the northern and southern facades of the Ray’s Dad’s Collectibles at 620 N. Main St. “ought to really pop,” he said. "We’ve made good progress in the last 60 days. I was on the Seventh Avenue Advisory Board and part of that is we’re trying to grow Main Street closer to Seventh Avenue. I think it’s a significant opportunity for us to really take the next step.
“It’s going to take a destination type of store, which I think this is, to get across 64 and onto the 600 block,” he added. His shop stocks hard-to-find toys, signs and collectible antiques. Ray has worked with the Tourism Development Authority, too, to make his store a sort of unofficial northern outpost of visitors information. He has a rack card display filled with brochures of things to do.
Rendering shows a 20-by-10-foot mural that will be painted on the northern facade.Ray’s shop, which was the home of Higgins print shop for many years, had Coca Cola signs on its exterior walls for years. The soft drink company chose Hendersonville from several North Carolina towns seeking murals.

A three-man crew from Roanoke, Va., arrived Monday afternoon and primed both the north and south walls with a white background. Next up is the sign painting — 25 feet high by 20 feet wide on the south wall and 20X10 feet on the north facade.

"It should look good by Wednesday," said sign painter Jack Fralin, who has painted dozens of Coca-Cola murals. "I hope by Friday to be putting clear-coat on it."

Coca-Cola does only a few signs each year — usually but not alwaysin the summer. The two new ones in the 600 block will be the second and third in downtown Hendersonville in the past three years. The bottling company commissioned  a fresh coat of paint on the Coca-Cola sign at Mike's on Main in December 2012.

"Mark sent them the historic photos and they were excited," Fralin said. "We were lucky we were able to pursue it this season."

Ray said a crew would film the painting and the company hopes to interview residents who remember the original murals. Ray says people are invited to come watch the painting and talk to interviewers about the history of the building and the 600 block.

A two-story commercial building with an intact original storefront, the circa 1925 brick structure boasts double leaf doors, corbelled cornice and flat brick arches over windows. It was known as Pace's Market from the 1920s through the early 1940s and Ellison's Market from the mid-1940s through at least the mid-1950s, according to a history compiled by the Hendersonville Historic Preservation Commission.