As Rustic Turtle Embroidery owner Gordon Machado pointed out, it is fair to say many local residents aren’t even aware of the underpass walkway on Fourth Street connecting county government offices on one side with the old Fremont School property on the other.
The underpass tunnel with a history dating back to the mid-1930s is largely unused these days, since the school closed down more than a decade ago and the lot where it stood has remained vacant. With the $36 million San Benito County Courthouse construction set to start there this month, though, the underpass topic came up during a January meeting of the Hollister Downtown Association’s design committee.
The organization, spearheaded by a task force comprised of Machado and architect David Huboi, is moving ahead on an idea to create a tiled mural in the walkway tunnel focused on the history of the property, particularly that of Fremont School and the plot’s other famous connection, being the site where city founder, Col. William Welles Hollister, lived in his house.
With a few small roadblocks apparently cleared, the organization is ready to start fundraising and eventually explore options for an artist. The idea is to create the mural on one side of the tunnel – which is about 80 to 90 feet long – using tiles purchased by residents who want to commemorate people with personal histories at the site. Those dollars from the tile purchases would help to fund the project.
Outside of the art work and some basic cleaning, Machado did not expect there would be much other work involved. Once it is finished – there is no current timeline – Machado envisioned the gates flanking each entrance would be locked at night.
“It’s kind of nice, a little ornate, with the wrought iron,” said Machado, who also marveled at the tunnel’s lacking vibrations with vehicles driving overhead.
Huboi also acknowledged many people are not aware of the underpass, about halfway between Monterey and West streets, and said he was “amazed” when he recently went to the site for the first time.
“I think it’s an opportunity to celebrate a feature of our community that no one hardly knows about,” Huboi said. “It has some potential to not only be a functional circulation route, but also to get a little art down there.”
While HDA members looked into options for the underpass, some unresolved questions did come up.
Machado explained that initially it was unclear who actually owned the site, the city or county. It is, in fact, the city’s property because it is under Fourth Street, which is Hollister’s jurisdiction. At this point, he said there have been no objections from city leaders or others, while HDA Executive Director Brenda Weatherly emphasized the organization would not seek use of tax funds on the project.
After deciding on the mural, the HDA soon realized it had just missed a grant cycle from a national arts program back east, and that it will have to wait until next year with the opportunity. And those issues all came after Machado’s initial idea for the tunnel, a coffee bar, was shot down because the passage is too narrow.
Huboi, for one, is pleased about adding a mural in a city with few displays of public art. He called the underpass mural “something I can sink my teeth into.”
He believes the city should require that a certain percentage of capital improvement projects include public art.
“I think we can do a lot more than what we have now,” Huboi said.
