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The Melrose District in Central Phoenix is enjoyed for many reasons by locals and tourists alike. It’s one of the best areas in the city to explore art galleries, antique & vintage shopping, thrift stores, bars & nightclubs and ethnic eateries. The Melrose Vintage Market is an outdoor, dog-friendly venue occurring monthly from October through April. It features at least 50 vendors offering arts & crafts, home decor, local food trucks, etc. While I enjoy all of these fun things to do, my favorite activity during the past three months is to document as much of the street art as possible for posterity.
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Since Melrose is one of the few walkable areas in a vast city like Phoenix, I enjoy strolling around taking pictures of the murals like I did in the FQ Story/Roosevelt district for my previous Artscapes post. Melrose is N/S on 7th Avenue mainly between Camelback Rd and Indian School Rd and is easy to traverse without a vehicle —which is a huge plus for me and anyone else who dislikes driving. However, keep in mind that during the summer months it’s way too hot for continuous walking around in the broiling sun. Sunburn, dehydration, and heatstroke can occur quickly in these conditions making an emergency room visit an unpleasant and expensive event!
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I first posted about the Melrose District in March, 2025 and shared mostly about the nightlife, street fair scenes, and vintage shopping. This post will mainly feature the intriguing art scenes and murals that continue to make this part of town unique and memorable. They definitely spritz up ordinary buildings that otherwise would scarcely get a second glance! There is an air of mystery regarding most of these murals too as many of them don’t have names or initials of the artist(s) who have devoted so much time and talent creating them. That’s something else I’ll need to research further, and I may post about that in the near future.
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When I first moved to Phoenix in 1995 the Melrose neighborhood was not an artist colony and not particularly distinctive in any aesthetic way. Over time this has changed greatly and definitely for the better. Melrose is merely one of numerous neighborhoods in the older, core area of Phoenix that needed to have new life breathed into it. Much of this improvement is due to gentrification which has accelerated over the past 15 years or so, and I enjoy documenting these changes as the area continues to evolve (hopefully this will always be positive!) Next month I’ll be sharing more artworks from Melrose, so stay tuned! 😀😀😀
