How you enter a city — and how you move through it — shapes your experience of it. That’s the idea behind Main Street Morgantown’s ongoing work on gateways, connectors, and alley revitalization, and it’s the philosophy that gave rise to two new murals now calling downtown Morgantown home.
Decker’s Creek Inspired Mural
At South High Station, a new mural draws its inspiration from the nearby creek — a waterway whose surrounding habitat has been quietly restored through years of community effort. The image is local in the truest sense: rooted in place, shaped by the people who live there.
It’s also the first thing many people see when they cross the bridge into downtown. South High Street is a gateway — and this mural was designed to feel like one. The words “Welcome to Morgantown” are painted right there on the wall, and the intention is exactly what you’d hope: that someone crossing into the city for the first time, or the hundredth time, feels something. A sense of arrival. A reminder that this place has a story, and that they’re now part of it.
Honoring the People Who Built Morgantown
Just a few blocks away, the Wall Street alley is being transformed as part of Main Street Morgantown’s broader alley revitalization initiative. The goal: to make sure every business owner, resident, and visitor moving through downtown feels connected, welcome, and safe.
For the alley project, organizers wanted an artist who could do something specific — honor the people who built Morgantown and made it what it is today. They found that in Blake Wheeler, whose work brings that vision to life on the alley walls.
The Wall Street alley mural doesn’t just decorate a space — it tells a story. Featured across its walls are the people, places, and industries that shaped Morgantown into what it is today: coal miners who powered the region’s economy, Seneca Glass craftsmen whose work became collector’s treasures, and the historic Metropolitan Theatre, a cultural anchor that has hosted the community for generations.
The Shack Neighborhood House, one of Morgantown’s most enduring nonprofits, is represented too — a nod to over a century of service to the community’s most vulnerable residents. So is Don Knotts, the Morgantown-born actor who earned five Emmys bringing Deputy Barney Fife to life on The Andy Griffith Show and remains one of the city’s most beloved sons.
And then there’s Ellie Mannette — a Trinidad native who came to WVU as artist-in-residence in 1992, made Morgantown his permanent home, and died here in 2018 — widely recognized as the Father of the Modern Steel Drum and one of the most quietly remarkable figures this city ever claimed.
Getting to the final design for these murals wasn’t quick. Main Street Morgantown received 59 submissions for the Wall Street alley art alone and gathered input through multiple community sessions before selecting an artist. The process reflects Main Street’s belief that public art in a shared space should reflect the people who share it.
A $40,000 Investment in Downtown
Together, the South High Station gateway mural and the Wall Street alley project represent a $40,000 investment in downtown Morgantown — one made possible through a collaborative effort between many community partners.
That collaborative model, organizers say, is exactly the point. “We get the best products for our communities through the collaborative effort of all these organizations, all these community members, and all these people,” said one project leader. “That’s what I like about this mural. It not only honors the past, but it shows what we’re doing today.”
More to Come
The two murals are part of a larger vision for how people experience downtown — not just the storefronts and sidewalks, but the alleys, the gateways, and the in-between spaces that connect it all. As Main Street Morgantown continues its revitalization work, expect more of those spaces to get a closer look.
For now, two walls in downtown Morgantown are telling the city’s story. Worth a walk to see them.
These murals wouldn’t exist without the generous support of the following organizations:
- Arts Council of Greater Morgantown
- City of Morgantown
- Claudio Corporation
- Douglas H. Tanner Memorial Fund for the Arts
- Fairmont State Foundation
- First Energy Foundation
- Monongalia County Commission
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Your Community Foundation Organizational Arts Grant
- West Virginia Department of Tourism America250 Mural Project
- West Virginia House of Delegates Local Economic Development Assistance Grant
