It’s not something in the fertilizer or the water, these flowers are blooming from the paint brushes and the hands of mural artist Mariah Kaminsky and 22 Project Jericho students.
The Rose City Mural depicts Springfield’s history of once being known as the Rose City from the late 19th Century through the Great Depression when it nurtured around 20 million flowers a year including the McGregor Brothers Co. Several area businesses still use Rose City in their names.
READ: Accidents, shooting at Buck Creek State Park this summer
Project Jericho director Lauren Houser discovered the city’s floral history through the Turner Foundation’s collection of vintage seed catalogs and immediately thought it a natural for the program’s students to work with. The question was where to go with it.
“I saw those images and couldn’t forget,” Houser said of going through historic seed catalogs of the time.
Project Jericho students had already created murals at the Springfield Family YMCA, Second Harvest Food Bank and most recently the Clark County Solid Waste District’s building in 2017, the latter called “Catching Light” with Kaminsky, that was the seed to grow the project.
The next step was finding the right wall downtown and it was the perfect location, right along Main Street.
“There’s a lot of development and revitalization and we are helping with a part of history,” said Houser.
Part of the fun is watching the people passing by and marveling at the work in progress.
READ: Coffee Expressions opening new location in Springfield
John Landess, executive director of the Turner Foundation, which owns the building and is lending support to the project, and his wife Jill strolled by on Thursday with smiles.
“It shows life, activity and tells the story of the town,” he said.
Jill Landess likes that it involves youngsters, giving them something creative to do on a late summer day before school starts.
The mural is a paint by number, not unlike what a child would do but on a much larger scale. Kaminsky studied the historic seed catalogs mixed the paints and made a map of where each would go as a guide for the students. She said it wasn’t hard to paint on the bricks after priming the side first.
This will be Kaminsky’s ninth public mural and is always enthused to work with Project Jericho, she said.
The sight only has about an hour of sunlight that seeps through. With the shade and breeze it makes the conditions ideal to work in.
READ: Navistar to reduce production line rates at Springfield plant
Project Jericho students and sisters Samaira and Saria Peterson found themselves on a scaffold and painting, finding it more fun than sitting at home.
Saria senses she’s being a part of history while depicting history and a legacy.
“I’m going to bring my kids down here some day and my grandkids and show them every single petal I painted,” she said.
Nate Sickles, 13, said the painting was easier than he thought and is glad to create something people will come to see.
The mural will be dedicated as part of a celebration, 5-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27. The public is invited to attend.
As the area was recently repaved and actual flowers planted, it’s part of several ongoing revitalization projects downtown.
Project Jericho is a program of Clark State Community College supported through funding from Clark County Department of Job and Family Services, the Ohio Arts Council, The Turner Foundation, Clark County Juvenile Court and private contributions.
About the Author