Look to your right for the striking two-story red brick structure with tall rectangular windows and the E. Janssen Building sign perched proudly right on top.
We just talked about the beautiful bones of this 1875 hardware store, but starting in 1998, it housed something truly magical. For two decades, this space was the HSU First Street Gallery. It brought vibrant new life to the historic brick walls, transforming an old commercial space into Eureka's cultural epicenter.
The gallery director, Jack Bentley, had a brilliant vision. He wanted to bridge what he called the town gown divide. That is a phrase used to describe the social and cultural gap between a university campus and the everyday residents of the town it sits in. Bentley believed art belonged right here on the bustling streets, not just locked away in academic ivory towers. And the community completely agreed. The gallery drew over twenty six thousand visitors every single year.
The exhibitions were incredibly powerful. In 2015, they hosted a visiting artist named Ana Teresa Fernandez. She performed a haunting piece called Erasure, where she slowly painted her entire body black against a black background. It was a devastating act of mourning for forty three college students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, who had recently been kidnapped and murdered. Through shows like this, the students running the gallery tackled heavy themes like social justice and racism. They also celebrated local traditions, highlighting the region's famous ceramic arts movement led by university faculty.
But sometimes a rich culture crashes hard into harsh financial realities. Just like the historic economic downturns that emptied out so many grand Victorian buildings in the past, a modern financial crisis hit the university. In early 2018, faced with a sweeping nine million dollar budget cut, the university announced the gallery would close. The administration argued that the high rent in Old Town and the expensive supplies needed for professional art shipping were just too much to sustain. The grand old rhythm of economic highs and lows continues even today, eventually sweeping away places we love.
The community was completely heartbroken. During the farewell exhibition in September 2018, devastated visitors covered the gallery walls with sticky notes expressing their sorrow. A gallery assistant noted that while the university promised to show student art in on campus galleries, those spaces just did not have the vital foot traffic that this downtown spot provided for aspiring young artists. The tension between needing money to survive and wanting to maintain a grand public space is a story as old as Eureka itself.
Let us keep walking. We are heading toward a fascinating spot a nine minute walk away. I will meet you at the Carter House Inn, where we will explore a modern building that perfectly mimics the past.
