PORT ANGELES — A welcome sign depicting artwork from a 1865 map of Port Angeles will be unveiled with a short ceremony Friday.
The sign, created by Jackson Smart of Jackson’s Sign Art Studio, will be on the west side of Railroad Avenue and Laurel Street, on the north-facing wall of a warehouse owned by Black Ball Transport Inc., which operates the M.V. Coho ferry that carries passengers between Port Angeles and Victoria.
The ceremony will be at 4 p.m., with cupcakes, cookies and coffee served, said downtown merchant Edna Petersen, who is organizing the unveiling party along with Rian Anderson, Port Angeles district manager for Black Ball Ferry Line.
The mural will greet visitors, both those arriving at the ferry terminal on Railroad Avenue and those arriving on U.S. Highway 101, said Petersen, owner of Necessities and Temptations gift shop and a former City Council member.
“It’s to welcome folks to Port Angeles,” she said.
Many sponsors
The majority of funding — $11,175 — is from city lodging tax receipts. The 4 percent room tax from hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast establishments can be spent only on tourism-related projects.
The rest of the cost of the $14,825 sign was funded through cash donations from a variety of businesses and groups: $2,000 from Black Ball Transport — which also donated free use of the warehouse wall — $1,000 from First Federal, $200 from the Port Angeles Business Association, $100 each from Pacific Office Equipment and Pacific Office Furniture and $250 from Olypen.com.
Sponsors also provided in-kind contributions. Those included the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, the city of Port Angeles, Hartnagel Building Supply, J&J Construction, Tony Breen, Andrew May and Petersen.
“We’ve all worked together to make this happen,” Petersen said. “It’s been an important community project.”
Historic artwork
The welcome sign is 8 feet tall and 16 feet wide. It depicts a view of the harbor, Ediz Hook, a cedar tree and a 19th-century sailing ship.
It is based on artwork from the original plat map of Port Angeles from 1865, which is now in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Also expected to be unveiled Friday is a Port Angeles Downtown Association kiosk on the corner of Laurel Street near the welcome sign.
Bob Lumens — who is both the PADA design chairman and the owner of the downtown Northwest Fudge and Confections — led the work to refurbish the old kiosk.
“When I noticed it some number of months ago, it had a map of Port Angeles from 2004 and a poster from 2003 for a free art event.”
So he has had a graphic artist working on three new sides of the kiosk.
One of the three sides of the structure will provide information about the outdoor art of Art on the Town, while another will feature businesses and entertainment, and the third will tell about the history of Port Angeles, Lumens said.
