Art Explorers

Overview

Some downtown buildings keep changing what they give back to Fort Bragg.

Today, 333 N. Franklin Street is home to Art Explorers, a nonprofit creative arts program and progressive studio serving disabled and neurodivergent adult artists.

The large storefront windows now display paintings and other artwork directly to Franklin Street, making the building both a working studio and a visible downtown gallery.

Location

Art Explorers is at 333 N. Franklin Street in downtown Fort Bragg.

The storefront sits in an older commercial row where shoe shops, cleaners, salons, clothing businesses, and other small local operations have changed places over the years.

History

Before Art Explorers, longtime residents remember this building as Makela's Shoe Shop.

Apo and Ann Makela operated the business, selling shoes and boots and repairing footwear for local customers. Apo worked on repairs in the back, while Ann worked up front.

Their sons also helped in the business and learned the trade. Community memory says Bob Makela later continued the family business at another Fort Bragg location on Elm Street.

The shop is remembered as much through its atmosphere as its merchandise.

People recall the smell of leather, creaky wooden floors, boots waiting for repair, and customers bringing in footwear that was worth fixing rather than replacing.

The Makela family's shoe business became part of a much longer Fort Bragg retail tradition. Later reporting on the closing of Haywire described more than a century of Makela and Haywire shoe and western-wear business in town.

Community Memories

Makela's Shoe Shop remains the strongest earlier memory connected directly with the building.

People remember buying boots, shoes, spurs, and leather goods there, while others remember bringing cowboy boots back for repeated repairs because replacing them was not always affordable.

One memory recalls the smell of leather and the creak of the wood floors. Another remembers possibly buying a first leather purse there.

The comments also brought out memories of neighboring Franklin Street businesses, particularly dry cleaners and a nearby salon.

Residents remember a recessed dry-cleaning storefront beside or near what is now Art Explorers, while others recalled another cleaner across Franklin Street. Polly Cleaners was one of the names remembered.

Community recollections suggest one of those cleaning businesses later moved farther north on Franklin Street, with the property eventually used for Budweiser distribution.

Together, those memories preserve a time when this short stretch of Franklin Street held a dense mix of small local businesses within just a few storefronts.

The Building Today

The building now has a very different look from its shoe-shop years.

Large front windows are filled with artwork, signs, gallery displays, and colorful pieces made by participating artists. The Art Explorers name is prominently displayed across the upper windows and on a hanging sidewalk sign.

Where the storefront once centered on leather, boots, and repair work, it now puts creativity directly in public view.

Timeline

Earlier years — The storefront becomes associated with Makela's Shoe Shop, operated by Apo and Ann Makela.

Makela era — Shoes and boots are sold and repaired here, with Apo working in the repair area and Ann serving customers in front.

Later years — Community recollections place a later Makela family shoe-business chapter on Elm Street.

1999 — Art Explorers begins as a small Saturday morning workshop around a kitchen table.

Later years — The program grows into an established nonprofit arts organization and operates from a Redwood Avenue location.

December 2018 — Art Explorers' published history places the move into 333 N. Franklin Street at this time.

2019 — Community recollection describes Art Explorers as having moved to Franklin Street in 2019, likely reflecting when the new location became established and familiar to the public.

2019 — Art Explorers receives the mayor's Well-Done Award for Best Creative Community Organization.

Today — Art Explorers continues at 333 N. Franklin Street as a working studio, gallery, and downtown home for participating artists.

Why It Matters

333 N. Franklin Street connects two very different kinds of Fort Bragg history.

Makela's Shoe Shop represents an era when downtown stores repaired what people already owned and skilled hands could keep a pair of boots working for years.

Art Explorers represents a newer chapter, giving artists a place to create, exhibit their work, and participate visibly in downtown life.

Different tools, different purpose — but still a storefront built around people making things with their hands.