27City With a Soul
“City With A Soul” — Kalyn Dunks (after Shelby Nickel), 2016, behind The FinderyMURAL
The wall that got sued into being better.
This cheerful wall behind The Findery has the best origin story in Waco mural history. In 2016 it said something else — “Waco Feels Like Home” — until a former Wacoan who'd been printing that phrase on T-shirts since 2012 objected. Trademark lawyers got involved. Over a mural. Forced to repaint, the shop went digging for something lawsuit-proof and came up holding treasure: a 1915 poem calling Waco “a virgin city with a soul” — a nickname writers used a century ago and everyone had forgotten.
So artist Kalyn Dunks repainted it with the hundred-year-old slogan, and the accidental rebrand became one of the most photographed walls in the city. Somewhere a trademark attorney is still telling this story at parties: the cease-and-desist that gave Waco back its own name.
Is this your wall?
This page is how people find this piece — and it has room for your name on it. If you own the building, made the art, or want to welcome visitors standing in front of it, we would love to put your story here too.
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