Parking open, more murals coming to the Kress Gap

Parking is available and more murals will soon go up at the Kress Gap, as a spot downtown has come to be known.

Eleven parking spaces on the lot, at 116 W. Broad St., are accessible from the alley behind it. Eight are reserved for Texarkana, Texas, Municipal Court employees from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, one is reserved for people with disabilities, and two have no restrictions.

Seven more murals are planned for a wall at the site where three have already been painted. The Texarkana Arts and Historic District board last year selected 10 design proposals out of 25 to be painted on the wall.

The idea is to reclaim the space and provide an attractive destination for downtown visitors, where they can be photographed standing in front of the murals. It seems to be working, with photos taken at the site appearing on social media such as Facebook and Instagram.

It is each remaining artist’s choice when to paint their mural, and because some are students, progress could come quickly after the end of the school year, a city spokesperson said.

The space was home to an abandoned former Kress and Co. department store that the city accepted as a donation in 2009.

The long-derelict building had become little more than a dangerous pile of rubble when the city decided to demolish it rather than attempting a much more expensive restoration.

Gator Industrial of Joplin, Mo., submitted the winning bid for the demolition at more than $629,000 and did the work over four and a half months in 2017.