By Amy Reinink
Sun Staff writer
Waldo - His artwork evokes the open road, from the winding intricacies of metropolitan highway systems to the retro cool of an old red truck. The building Roland Wise considers his latest work of art once housed the old Waldo Bank. It’s now home to Wise’s new art gallery and coffee shop, 301-24, which opened Easter weekend and takes its theme from U.S. 301, the road that enchanted Wise as a child growing up in Waldo.
ROB C. WITZEL/The Gainesville Sun
The shop’s namesake is reflected in Roland Wise’s art gallery and coffee shop, 301-24 in Waldo. Wise bought the two-story brick building on a whim in 2006 during a visit home to Waldo from Los Angeles, where he’d been working as an artist and writer.
Wise, who recently moved back to Waldo from Los Angeles, named the coffee shop after State Road 24 and U.S. 301 to give the shop a firm sense of place, and to poke fun at the city’s notoriety for strict traffic patrolling along those roads. Waldo is one of the last remaining AAA-designated speed traps in the country, as bright yellow and black billboards at the entrance of town on U.S. 301 announce.
Wise bought the two-story brick building with periwinkle trim on a whim in November 2006 during a visit home to Waldo from Los Angeles, where he’d been working as an artist and writer. The building, which dates to 1913, sits on southbound SR 24, just south of its intersection with U.S. 301.
Wise in front of his American Flag, 4'x6' mixed media on canvas
“When I was growing up here, the 301-24 interchange was the biggest thing I knew,” Wise said. “As a kid, that overpass was just huge. And in the ’50s, before I-75 and I-95, 301 was it.”
Vintage U.S. 301 and SR 24 road signs deck the shop’s windows. Wise’s personal collection of U.S. 301 memorabilia stretches even farther back to include maps published by U.S. 301 merchants in the 1950s to lure tourists to motels or restaurants along 301 on their way to and from South Florida resorts.
Wise said the road’s legacy lives on years after the construction of the interstate highway system. He credits U.S. 301 for many of the store’s regular customers, from Jacksonville commuters heading south to snowbirds heading north.
“There are, like, hundreds of books about Route 66,” Wise said. “I want a coffee-table book about 301. That’s the more interesting road to me.” Wise said the romance and history surrounding U.S. 301 was part of what drew him home again. “Roads are about creating cities, creating sprawl, about getting the hell out of here, and I was all about that,” Wise said. “Which is ironic, considering that I came back home in the end.”
NEW HOURS
monday 6a-6p (we are shut labor day for a family bbq)
tuesday 6a-6p
wednesday 6a-6p
thursday 6a-6p
friday 6a-12m
saturday 7a-12m
sunday 8a-6p
PHONE US FOR MORE INFORMATION --352-468-1125
