Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

July 10, 2008 issue

Feature Photo--
Welcome to Downtown Boone


After more than a year of work, the new downtown Boone gateway is now completed at the intersection of Polar Grove Connector and West King Street. A project of the Downtown Boone Development Association Public Art Program, the gateway features three benches created by local artists, a concrete walkway care of Boone Public Works and landscaping care of Maple Ridge Landscaping, Lowe’s Home Improvement of Boone, Mustard Seed, Aldridge Farms Landscaping, Ginn Company and Wren’s Nest Garden Center. Standing on the one-tenth of an acre site are, from left, gardening volunteer Nikki Karabinis, Hugh Owings of Black Valley Design Collective, Boone Development Services Urban Design Specialist Brian Johnson, Boone Mayor Loretta Clawson’s mother Viola Gay, Boone Mayor Loretta Clawson, bench artist Tim Salt and Downtown Boone Development Association Assistant Director Mary Ella Baker. Black Valley Design Collective designed the benches on the left and right side and Tim Salt designed the bench in the middle of the gateway. Blue Mountain Metalworks created the base of all three benches. The Watauga County Commissioners gave the Downtown Boone Development Association Public Art Program a 40-year lease on the gateway property, as well as a lease on an additional one-tenth of an acre tract on the opposite side of Poplar Grove Connector where a sign welcoming people into downtown Boone will be constructed later this summer. Funds for the gateway project came from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Conservation Foundation. Boone Public Works donated the concrete walkway, bench pads and topsoil, and employees of Boone Public Works installed the benches, planted the large trees and dug the landscaping beds. Photo by Sam Calhoun