There’s a six-block area in Spokane where you can shop for a cool vintage guitar, enroll in a pottery class, learn how to play the mandolin, take in a night of improv comedy or a classic movie, discover chalk painting and learn how to make a quilt.

It’s the Garland District, and it has become home to coffee shops, bakeries, and vintage shops, all part of and catering to a mid-20th century neighborhood two miles north of downtown. The neighborhood hosts the Spokane Art School, the Spokane Music Institute, the Garland Theater, a handweavers guild, two sewing outlets, two guitar shops, a violin repair shop and even a recording studio. 

The Garland area has evolved over the past several years as a magnet of sorts, attracting arts-related businesses and do-it-yourself enthusiasts, as well as entertainment venues. 

Sue Bradley, board president of the nonprofit Spokane Art School and Gallery and president of the Garland Business District, and says for the past 10 years, there’s been a synergy in the district created by businesses related to the arts and arts education. 

“There are lots of creative-oriented businesses that have moved into the area in the past few years,” Bradley says.

Bradley opened the Tinman Gallery, which featured regional artists, at 811 W. Garland, in 2003. She retired from that business and closed the gallery earlier this year.

In 2012, after having done business in the neighborhood for years, Bradley helped to open the Spokane Art School in the Garland District. That school  currently occupies the former Tinman Gallery building and a neighboring space.

Bradley says several music-related businesses opened after she moved into the area. Violin Works’ owner Jim Kytonen bought the building at 818 W. Garland, and Cole Music Co., a vintage guitar and repair shop owned by Eben Cole, opened at 816 W. Garland. The Spokane Music Institute, owned by Kit Ehrgood, opened at 820 W. Garland in 2007.

Bradley says it’s been a nice synergy with so many arts-related businesses so close together. 

“It’s put a different cast on the neighborhood,” she says. “I think the area is charming, and we’re trying to maintain that small-town feel here.”

Officially an historic district and a Spokane business district, the Garland Business District is a roughly six to eight block area on either side of Garland Avenue from Monroe Street to Washington Street. The district is part of the North Hill Neighborhood Council which was recognized by the city in 1998. The council has been working on a 20-year neighborhood improvement plan within its boundaries, which includes the Garland Business District, to reinforce neighborhood identities and promote businesses. Among its plans for neighborhood improvement is distinctive signage, sidewalk improvement, new bike paths and improved landscaping. 

Although there has been no definitive effort to bring the arts to the area, Bradley says like-minded people seem to congregate in the same space. She says she’s seen the pattern before in other cities.

“It’s the first sign of revitalization,” she says. “You see it in places like Brooklyn and Detroit. The arts come into an area because they don’t have much money and there’s low overhead, and artists can often repurpose and get the positive energy going.”

One of the latest additions to the area is Artworks, owned by longtime Spokane businesswoman Nancy Jones. The store, which opened two weeks ago, occupies 1,300 square feet at 600 W. Garland. It sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and accessories, as well as “vintage modern” furniture and home décor. Instructors at the store teach classes in repurposing furniture using chalk paint and waxes.  

Jones, who started a home décor crafting business in Spokane in 1977, opened Artworks in Spokane Valley in 1996 and several years ago, another store in downtown Coeur d’Alene. With trends in the arts-and-crafts industry, she says she transitioned to using decorative concrete and plasters at a certain point. As the industry became more complex she decided to get her decorative arts contractor’s license to do custom finishes, walls, cabinets, furniture, and floors, and did a lot of custom work. 

Jones says she started using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint three years ago, and traveled and trained with Annie Sloan, a resident of the United Kingdom, while Sloan was in the U.S. setting up a distribution system for her line of paint. The chalk paint is well-known in home décor and do-it-yourself circles because it sticks to just about any surface, she says, even concrete and masonry. Her store is one of 500 retail distributors for the chalk paint across the country, she says.

“Instead of buying new, many people are repainting old furniture and repurposing it,” she says.

Classes in rehabilitating cabinetry, using decorative transfers, and creating unique finishes and distressed looks with the paint are very popular, she says. “The classes are growing, and we teach a chalk paint demo class that has taken off like wildfire.”

The Garland District is a perfect match for Artworks. “There are a lot of businesses that do creative arts as well as teach, and it’s developed into a visual-arts area geared to artists.” 

Jones says she just joined the Garland Business District group and is looking forward to working with the group. 

In addition to creative arts and music, the neighborhood, which has the look of the 1950s, has stores and other vendors crammed into nooks and crannies. 

The district is also home to Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle restaurant, and the famly-owned Ferguson’s Café next door at 804 W. Garland. Ferguson’s, which opened in the 1930s, has been featured in several movies. The Milk Bottle restaurant and Ferguson’s were heavily damaged in a fire in September 2011. They have both been refurbished since then.  

The recently-refurbished Garland Theater, complete with an art deco appeal, opened in 1945 and now shows second-run and classic movies. The theater is located in the heart of the Garland District at the northeast corner of Garland and Monroe streets.

Across the street to the south from the Garland Theater is the Blue Door Theater, at 815 W. Garland. It bills itself as “The Inland Northwest’s Premier Improv Company.” The Blue Door hosts improv and stand-up comedy shows on Friday and Saturday nights and holds classes in improv for adults and teens throughout the week.

The Spokane Music Institute, at 820 W. Garland, is the brainchild of Kit Ehrgood, who opened the institute seven years ago as a lesson studio. Ehrgood contracts with 12 teachers who teach voice lessons as well as musical instruments—everything from flute, guitar, and brass/woodwinds, to violin and drums. 

Ehrgood says he loves the history of the Garland District and would enjoy seeing even more arts-type businesses locate there. 

“I love the neat, artsy music thing the area has turned into,” Ehrgood says. Through an outreach program, he also provides music lessons to those in the community who can’t afford to take lessons.

Among other businesses in the burgeoning Garland District is Amplified Wax recording studio, a bookstore called Booktrade, Mark’s Guitar Shop, and two sewing shops—Sew Easy Too and Top Stitch.