150 Neighbors Painted Centralia's Hub City Mural. Now It Has a Statewide Award.
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
In August 2025, while the wall at 203 N. Tower Ave. was still getting its finishing touches, muralist Matthew Anthony had already seen something he hadn't planned. People were bringing their neighbors back downtown to show them a patch of color. "Actually, people have already come back out and shown their neighbors and been like, 'That's where I painted,'" he told The Chronicle at the time.
Fourteen months later, that same wall has a statewide award. The judges who gave it seem to have cared about the same thing Anthony noticed that week.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Washington State Main Street Program gave the Centralia Downtown Association its 2026 Outstanding Special Project Award for the Hub City Community Mural. The announcement came at the Excellence on Main ceremony, held at the IOOF Ellensburg Lodge No. 20 during the PLACES Conference. The program serves a network of nearly 80 towns and cities across Washington, and Centralia is one of them. The award goes each year to projects that help revitalize a downtown or neighborhood commercial district.
Washington Main Street Director Breanne Durham presented the award to Anthony and to CDA Executive Director MacKenzie McGee. According to The Chronicle's report on the ceremony, she explained the choice this way:
"A beautiful mural is something to enjoy; but a true community-led mural gives people the gift of participation. Centralia's Hub City community mural reminds us that successful placemaking is not only about the finished result, but about helping people see themselves reflected in downtown."
Durham's words put the emphasis on participation. So the mural matters most to people who pass the corner of Tower Avenue and Pine Street on an ordinary Tuesday. For a fair number of them, a piece of that wall is their own work.
Anthony based the design on one of his watercolors. It shows Centralia's downtown corridor as seen from Tower Avenue, with "Hub City" lettered in front of a wheel at the center. Anthony enlarged the design to fill the wall and broke it into color blocks that people with no painting experience could fill in. Then he guided them through the work.
Here is how the painting weekend went:
Those postcards are probably on a lot of refrigerators around town. When she spoke with The Chronicle in 2025, Hallie Ralls, then CDA board president, said this may be the first mural in Centralia painted by the community. She also said what she hoped would come of it: "I hope my daughters can say, 'Look, I painted this piece 50 years ago,' when they're walking downtown with their kids or grandkids."
The location ties back to the reason for the mural. The CDA planned it around the 2025 Founder's Day, themed "Restore. Remember. Rejoice.," which marked Centralia's 150th anniversary. The CDA's own history of the city's founder says George and Mary Jane Washington established Centerville in 1875 as the Northern Pacific Railroad approached. The downtown association calls the city's connection to its founders significant to Centralia's recent renaissance. It also says the 150th was a chance to look back while inviting residents to help shape what comes next.
The plaza across the street came out of the same downtown effort. Pine Street Plaza began in 2021 as a seasonal project that turned one block of East Pine Street into a public gathering and outdoor seating area. It was meant as an entry point for people arriving from the 1912 train depot, and the early plans mentioned possible farmers market and local event uses. That first season ran from June through Oct. 31, according to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.
So the city's founding story, the depot, a plaza designed as a front door, and a wall painted by 150 residents now share one intersection. The founders' story still draws people together beyond the 150th, too. The CDA held another Founder's Day this year, on Monday, Aug. 31, at Centralia College. It included speakers, activities, and a pantry-bag project, The Chronicle reported.
If you painted a block and haven't been back, or if you never got a postcard and want to see what the fuss was about, the next few weeks of the downtown calendar give you plenty of chances. Several events begin at the plaza or a short walk from it:
The Nov. 18 loop is the easiest way to start right next to the mural. You meet at the plaza, so the wall is across the street before the walk even begins. The tree lighting a little over a week later is held in the park named for the founder whose 150th anniversary inspired the mural.
If you'd like to cross the river first, Experience Chehalis lists its Harvest Shop Hop for Nov. 7, from noon to 7 p.m. downtown, with local shopping, participating restaurants, and a scavenger hunt.
The Hub City mural is a recent addition to downtown art that has built up over many years. A 2016 LewisTalk feature on Centralia's murals listed several pieces worth adding to a walk. Some are a decade or more old, so take this as a list of established works to look for rather than a guaranteed route:
The wall at 203 N. Tower is the one on that walk that residents painted themselves.
Here at June Jones and Woodland Real Estate, we pay close attention to the people and projects that make Southwest Washington's small downtowns feel like home, and Centralia's 150 painters are a good example. If you painted a block of the Hub City mural, or you have a favorite corner of downtown Centralia you think more neighbors should know about, we'd love to hear about it. Let's Connect.
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