Phoenixville >> For the past two weeks, Teresa Haag has been transforming the blank exterior wall of Marly’s BYO into a three story welcome message.
The artist has been hired to create the latest mural for the borough at the corner of Bridge and Starr streets, which will help greet visitors as they make their way into town. The new mural is part of a three year plan being implemented by borough’s Beautification Advisory Commission to continue Phoenixville’s revitalization.
“It’s been going really, really well,” Haag said of the mural’s progress. “I took on this project and was a little nervous. I’ve never done anything this large before. But everything is going really smoothly. The community has really shown up to show its support and that’s been really helpful as well.”
When finished, the 46 by 36 foot mural will showcase Phoenixville’s roots as an iron and steel factory town. Haag said she’s usually attracted to projects that depict cityscapes and urban environments, such as the old steel mill, in a new light. The artist expects the $20,000 project to take a total of about six weeks to finish.
Using a photo from 1932 that offers a view of the factory that can still be seen today, Haag designed a computer rendering of her proposed mural to pitch her idea to the advisory committee.
“They all loved it,” she said. “It was really a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”
Lou Beccaria, chairman of Beautification Advisory Commission and president and CEO of the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation, said Haag’s design will capture the spirit of the borough’s history while acting as a shining example of its future for visitors to town.
“When people are stopped at a red light,” he said, “It’s a great venue to say ‘Welcome to Phoenixville.'”
Beccaria said the advisory committee has had a vision of murals, sculptures and other cultural pieces for a while now. To make that vision a reality, the group gave birth to the downtown cultural investment project, composed of number of borough entities interested in the revitalization of Phoenixville. Among the organizations included in the project are the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation, the borough, the chamber of commerce, the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, the Phoenix Village Art Center, the Phoenixville Area Historical Society, Phoenixville Area Economic Development Corporation, Phoenixville Federal Bank and Trust, Phoenixville Area Business Association, Chest-Mont Valley Ventures, the Association of the Colonial Theater and the advisory committee.
“That’s just one of several projects being done over the next few years downtown,” said Kurt Kunsch, board president of the downtown cultural investment project and senior vice president of Phoenixville Federal Trust. The group plans to refurbish the 20-year-old mural across from Molly Maguire’s at the corner of Bridge and Main streets. Other murals are planned at the intersection of Main and Prospect streets and on the corner house wall on Mill Street.
Additionally, the group is planning to install three sculptures throughout town. The first being an iron steel worker, the second, a phoenix while the third has yet to be determined. The group also plans to refurbish parts of Balder Park and Flow Straub Way, Kunsch said.
While work is just getting started, Haag said she hopes at the end her mural will be something the community can get behind.
“I feel like what I’m doing here is something I can be proud of and the community can come around,” she said. “Twenty years from now (I hope) my kids can look up and be proud of something their mom worked on.”
