Artist James Chase Creates The Newest Hotspot On Hanover Street

MANCHESTER, NH - Local people, business owners, artists, and political figures gathered on Hanover Street Tuesday for a ribbon cutting at what is becoming a hot spot for Manchester.

The mural painted on the side of the parking garage attached to the Elm Street apartment building became a canvas for artist James Chase.

Chase told Manchester Ink Link "He’s had his eye on the blank canvas that was the grungy-looking exterior of the parking garage between Hanover and Manchester streets for a while. So when Gerry Dupont of Red Oak Properties decided to do something to spruce up the street where she and her husband Ron also manage many of the existing buildings, including a residential renovation project underway and the grungy parking garage wall, fate delivered the coveted job to Chase.”

“In our opinion, the parking garage has always been the low point on the street,” says Gerry Dupont. “We always had the idea to beautify it somehow and internally were talking about how to do that.”

Once the concept was designed the vines were removed from the wall, pressure washing was done, and a primer coat was applied.

For several weeks Chase was assisted by Christian Rivera who would sketch out parts of the wall, tape them off to mask the areas, and apply multiple colors of paint.

If anyone watched Chase work, he spent countless hours stopping to talk to curious people that wanted to know more about the work he was doing.

The mural was finished last week and instantly became the hot spot for people taking photos and selfies. As people come to Manchester to performances at the Palace it becomes a magnet to bring people down Hanover Street.

After the ribbon cutting Tuesday Chase and Rivera took time to meet people and posed for several photos.