Tuskegee Airmen mural to return at new location
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STEUBENVILLE -- Community leaders gathered Wednesday in front of the OYO brewery property at Market and 4th streets to announce their first mural "redo" -- a recreation of one of Steubenville's most beloved and recognizable art works, the Tuskegee Airmen, destroyed three months ago when its host building was sold and then demolished.
The new Tuskegee Airmen mural will be about a block away from the original, painted on the outer wall of the Antique Warehouse. It will be higher than most to enhance its visibility to motorists as well as pedestrians.
"We were disappointed when the original Tuskegee Airman mural went down on Washington Street," Paul Zuros, executive director of Steubenville Visitors Center and Historic Fort Steuben, said. "So we’re just so excited now that we have the opportunity to redo (it). The City of Murals, we handle it at the Visitor Center and Historic Fort Steuben -- it’s such an important part of our community, we have so many people who come down and learn about the history of Steubenville by going around and seeing all of our murals. So this mural, when we get it rebuilt here and redone on this wall behind us, will be a gem for the city of murals program."
Originally painted in 2019, the mural honored Jerome and John Ellis Edwards, Steubenville natives and members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of Word War II.
"The Tuskegee Airmen was such an important group of African American fighters, and it didn’t just include the fighter pilots, but...the maintenance staff and the people who worked on the planes, and so many different people that were a part of that particular organization," Zuros said. "It was an incredible thing. Jerome was killed in 1943 when his plane exploded during a takeoff, and his brother John was offered a discharge, a military discharge for family hardship at that time, but he decided he didn’t want to do that, he wanted to go back in and serve his country."
Zuros said John Edwards earned "so many accolades" for his wartime exploits, including being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in Italy in 1945.
He said Historic Fort Steuben has been working closely with OYO Brewing and Antique Warehouse officials to make it happen, and pointed out their cooperation, along with community buy-in, are going to be essential in bringing the project to completion.
The original mural "was painted through a community effort, with local support helping turn the idea into a lasting tribute," he pointed out.
"This is an important story," Zuros said. "And even though we lost the original one that was put up there was a huge group of people who contributed to the mural. So we hope that that those folks would come out again to have it repainted."
Zuros said the recreated mural isn't going to be a carbon copy of the original,
"There’s going to be aspects of it that are very similar, it’ll be very similar," he said. "It won’t be exactly the same because, as you know, the artist who started the process, Rusty Baker, passed away–he did the original background work for it but he’s no longer with us.
But Holbrook, he said, is very capable and has done several murals in Steubenville.
OYO 's Andrew Sharple said they "saw an opportunity to help bring the city back together and live by the motto ("Brewed to bring us together") that we’re trying to create here."
"We thought it would be fitting just to offer up that wall...for the Tuskegee Airmen repainting here," he said. "It’s my understanding that it’s going to be higher than the elevation of the new building, and I’ve done the drive a bunch of times coming down from Sunset–when you come off the off ramp at Market Street, you should be able to see it coming all the way down the hill, then across most of downtown."
Antique Warehouse's James Lash said things like murals "are just small steps in economic progress in our area that lead to bigger and better things. We’re just so excited to see what the future holds."
Marin Luther King Jr. Committee envoy Marc Gregory shared thoughts from Holbrook, the artist tasked with recreating the mural, while Sharon Kirtdoll told those involved in bringing the mural back that, "You dream big, and that’s what Martin Luther King did, 'I have a dream...' but you guys are dreamers, and that’s what we need -- some dreamers to bring some new visions and some new interests into our community."
Zuros, though, cautioned it's not all going to happen overnight. He said Holbrook "will have to do a mock-up of what he has in mind, calculate the cost in today's dollars, and then get the board to sign off. Once that's done they can start fund raising."
Zuros said the mural redo 'won’t be exactly the same as the original...'because the artist who started the process has died.
Sharple said it will likely be "early spring, early summer" before they'll be ready for Holbrook to start painting.
"To have an individual who lost his life and another gentleman who served in combat being represented here is a really big deal," Mayor Ralph Fletcher added. "It's a really big deal for our youth, that way they know the history of Steubenville. They know what people have given and sacrificed for not only Steubenville but our country in general.