There's a good chance Hannah Weston got straight A's in penmanship when she was a student. Manheim residents can benefit from her beautiful handwriting when they enjoy a new mural she created at 10 Market Square.

The mural features the phrase "Welcome to Manheim's Historic Market Square" in calligraphy designed by Hannah.

"It's a fair amount of text to fit in the space, given that we didn't want to crowd the lettering," she said. "We wanted the words to be easily read from the square or Route 72."

All of the lettering on the mural is original and unique to this project. The result of Hannah's hard work is impressive, and the project presented quite a few challenges to pull off.

The texture of the brick and grout made clean lines and curves difficult to accomplish, and Hannah had to work around an electrical conduit bisecting the wall, a large off-center window, a sloping upper roof line and a shallow first story roof. She also had to work several stories above a bank ATM drive-through that remained open during the project.

"In addition to readable text, I wanted the lettering to have a bit of movement to it - not straight horizontal lines of text - which I achieved with the words 'Welcome to' painted on a diagonal, letters with curling entry or exit strokes, long flourishes (the entry stroke to the M of "Manheim's" is a circle probably 8 to 9 feet in diameter!) and lettering of varying heights and weights," she said. "A distelfink is perched in that large round flourish of the M as a nod to two centuries' worth of Pennsylvania Dutch fraktur calligraphy and folk art, which is often decorated with such birds. I gave it my own twist with extra bands of color on the wing and tail and sweeping flourishes from its head and tail."

She also incorporated a colorful rose in the lower right to symbolize Lancaster County's - and Manheim's - long association with red roses and placed a smaller white rose on the bottom left. It serves as an asterisk for the subtler lettering "Est. 1762" below the window.

An artist and calligrapher originally from Knoxville, Tenn., Hannah moved to Lancaster when she married her husband, Peter, in 2016. She soon met fellow artists Jason and Kate Horst, owners of Horst Arts. In early 2025, Jason suggested that Hannah submit a design for the new mural, which the Manheim Area Chamber of Commerce wanted to have a lettering-heavy design.

She submitted a written proposal to the Chamber in March, created mockups in June and met with Chamber representatives in mid-August to finalize the design. By that point, she wasn't sure if the mural could be completed in 2025 due to her schedule and weather constraints, but she learned the work would start on Sept. 24, and she'd have one month of rental on the lift required to complete the work.

"With such a tight schedule, a rainy start and a few prior commitments, I ended up spending 21 days on the wall, averaging about seven hours a day on the lift," Hannah said. "There were definitely moments when I didn't think the mural would be complete by the deadline and some very late days of painting just past sunset, but then I would have a productive day and confidence would return!"

Working on the lift proved to be another challenge for Hannah, as did discovering how much movement she felt while high above the ground. She also had to learn how to operate the lift's dial, which wasn't fully intuitive. She often ended up too close to the wall or too far away.

"While I didn't mind the height per se and was wearing a safety harness, sudden movements three stories up were startling, to say the least!" Hannah said. "I joked with Kate that we can now also bill ourselves as mural artists who can paint from a rocking boat! I literally had to reacquire my 'land legs' each evening."

She credits the Horsts with their help during the mural process, even though they ended up with another mural project starting nearby. Kate helped Hannah prime the 500-square-foot space and showed her how to operate the lift. Jason gridded out and transferred her design to the uneven and expansive wall.

Hannah is pleased with the result of her hard work, and so is the Chamber.

"This mural project represents an exciting opportunity to revitalize our downtown area and celebrate the unique character of Manheim," said Kristie Schmid, Chamber executive director, who noted that the project was financed through the Chamber's 2025 sponsors. "We are confident that this mural will become a cherished landmark that enhances the beauty and vibrancy of our community."

Hannah noted that murals bring life to a town, not just by adding color to an otherwise blank wall, but also by expressing the liveliness and hopefulness of the town's population.

"This mural strikes a balance between historic sign painting and fresh lettering and - more importantly - points locals and visitors to the central gathering space of the borough for the last 250-plus years," she said. "We hope such projects will bring new businesses to Market Square, continue to encourage revitalization downtown and be a local landmark for decades to come."