Nice to see more art on Main Street - especially in the Tapp's building

 

The "Crafty Feast," a fine crafts sale held downtown Saturday, laid out some really nice goodies. A bunch of funny and strange dolls, beautiful hand-crafted jewelry, and purses I insist could also serve as very cool hats. The quality of the work was very high and the crowd for the one-day event looked good to me.

But one of the main reasons I wanted to be on Main Street was because the event was being held in the old Tapp's store - and because the event fit the place perfectly.

I spent most of my time talking about how wonderful the buildings is, so I'll do it here since I didn't talk to all of you.

The main first floor of the building is one huge space - a long rectangle with a ceiling that must be 40 feet above and from which are suspended pointy aluminum light fixtures. Many people may not know that the store actually closed not all that long ago in 1995.

The art moderne style building with its curving line and the clean lettering of the Tapp's sign was right on the cutting edge when the store opened in 1940. Along with those nice lights, the store also had blonde wood display cabinets, streamlined railings and blue glass on some interior walls.

During an expansion of the store in 1952 Gil Petroff did a large mural that's at the far end of the Main floor and it's still there.

The store was also locally grown and the Tapp family ran it up to the end.

After Tapp's closed the upper floors were converted into condos and apartments and the big downstairs space was a gym for a number of years.

The use of such an artistic building for a quality art event is the perfect fit. Let's hope for more of this.