Published: March 11, 2008 07:54 pm         

RANDOM THOUGHTS: City mural will add a lot to Crossville

Last week I wrote praise of why the Cumberland Plateau is a great place to live. Last week was the deadline for high school students interested in working on a downtown mural to turn in their essay on what makes Cumberland County a great place to live. Thanks for this exciting project goes to the Crossville Arts Council.

After a visit to Philadelphia last summer I thought of murals in a new way. The City of Brotherly Love is also known as the City of Murals and they boast 2700 murals throughout the city. Our local mural project is even more exciting because it has a New York muralist Katie Yamasaki leading the work.

Public art has become important in many cities. It probably started with large sculptures created by important artists. Because of the large fees only equally large cities could afford these works. It wasn’t too long before smaller towns came up with a way to display public art for less money. Models of cows, dogs, fish, any animal that held special meaning to the town were dressed and displayed on the sidewalks. Crossville joined that group with the model otters.

Now the Crossville Arts Council is taking us a step further in public art with a mural that should be part of our community for many years. This will not be the first time our town has had art work on the exterior of a building. Remember “The Little Policeman on Main Street”?

In 1927, 22-year-old A.L. (Alton) Smith painted the policeman pointing to the words Park Your Car Here on the old J.A. Kemmer Building. It remained there on the brick building for many years before it was removed.

After it was gone it was not forgotten by Bill Flynn of the Flynn Sign Company. In 1989 Bill and his son Tom restored it to its original state with the support of Virginia Rowell and other members of the original Kemmer family.

On April 6, 1989 a special ceremony was held at the site. Among those attending were the Kemmer family and members of the Cumberland County Historical and Genealogical Society. A very special guest also attended. The artist from 1927, Alton Smith, and his wife from Homer, GA, where he retired, came back for the occasion.

Smith, at 84, recalled that Walter Hill wanted something to attract attention to Crossville’s Main Street and Smith, who doodled around with art, needed a few dollars. From that humble beginning, Smith went on to art school in Chicago. In his high school days in Crossville he was often chastised for his art doodling but art became his life’s work. He did art work for Sears, Coca-Cola, Fortune magazine, World Book Encyclopedia and many other publications. He also worked at the Commercial Art Institute and the main Art Institute in Chicago before retiring.

His eyes twinkled as he looked at his wife of 61 years because he said it was at this building where he first spotted her and began throwing candy kisses at her.

Later this month there is sure to be many onlookers at the Jane Powers’ law office on the corner of Main and Fifth Street as work gets under way on the mural. Just as “The Little Policeman” attracted attention to Crossville’s Main Street, this completed mural will do the same.