Today Lake Placid is known as the ``Town of Murals'' with more than 40 gracing downtown buildings. But soon Homestead and Florida City may be vying for the title.

Inspired by Lake Placid's success of turning itself into an artsy tourist attraction, Homestead author Marjorie Doughty organized The Mural Society of Homestead and Florida City to try to pay for large art to beautify downtown Homestead and Florida City.

``All over Homestead and Florida City there are numerous buildings aching for murals,'' Doughty said.

As a first step, artist Connie Hillyer painted a small oil sketch of what would be a 80-by-20-foot mural in downtown Homestead's Losner Park -- Echoes of the Everglades -- that pays tribute to the late Homestead and Everglades legend Glen Simmons.

It would depict Simmons in the middle of a serene swamp, standing tall in harmony with his surroundings in his handmade skiff. It seems in the painting that even the alligators are nodding approvingly.

``The mural will be a traffic-stopper,'' predicts Ruth Campbell, the director of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum. ``People will have their picnics and parties in front of it. It will be a people magnet like the mural on the opposite wall of Losner Park was, before they began to reconstruct the Seminole Theater -- and that mural is now unfortunately covered up.''

``Murals will encourage people who like the arts to come downtown,'' added Dennise Sleeper of Spellbound Books & Gifts.

The cost of the mural will be about $10,000 and the Mural Society is hoping to raise that.

In Lake Placid, the Cattlemen's Association became the first big sponsor of that town's mural project.

So the Mural Society is asking local groups, businesses, community leaders and residents for donations for Hillyer's mural that they believe will help revitalize downtown Homestead.

The Mural Society's first fundraising event will be a Luncheon and Fashion Show on Saturday at the City Church, 1700 N. Krome Avenue.

Hillyer's would be the first mural that the society would fund.

``We have an endless list of great motifs for the [future] murals to come,'' said Doughty, author of Memoirs of an Insignificant Dragon, about her life in Vietnam from 1962 to 1974. ``The history and people of Homestead, then and now. The Everglades, the trains, the tomato fields, orchids, the pioneers, the Haitians; characters old and new that all make up our town. If we don't preserve this, it will be lost for future generations.

``Homestead is the gateway to the Keys,'' Doughty added. ``With murals here local people and tourists will stop and linger instead of just passing through. A great increase for the local businesses will follow . . . We need corporations to get behind us to support our efforts to put Homestead on the map. The city of Homestead is working with us.''

Hillyer, the artist behind Echoes of the Everglades, has lived in her yellow house in Homestead for the past 40 years.

In 1976, for the country's Bicentennial, Hillyer made the mural Man in Space by the missile on Campbell Street and U.S. 1.

Underneath the man in a spacesuit, Hillyer had painted ``Washington crossing the Delaware.'' The missile is long gone and no one knows what happened to the mural.

Growing up in Luzerne, Pa., Hillyer drew, copying from comic books.

Eventually she won two scholarships. But she didn't have enough money to go to college.

So after Hillyer graduated from high school, she spent four years in a sewing factory.

``It wasn't very creative,'' Hillyer said, laughing.

In 1970, she moved to Homestead with her family and became inspired by the bright colors of Florida. Her painting blossomed.

Hillyer attended art shows all over the state and taught 4-H kids at the Agriculture Center in Homestead.

Hillyer displayed her art at the annual Art Show in Key West which gave her patrons from all over the world. Two men in suits once knocked on Hillyer's door. They were sent by a sheik from Saudi Arabia who stayed at the Keys' Ocean Reef. The sheik had seen Hillyer's work and sent his men to buy a favorite painting.

``I could probably have charged much more for that painting than I did,'' Hillyer said, laughing.

In 2001 she was paralyzed in her right side by a stroke.

``Painting helped me recover the use of my right arm and hand,'' Hillyer said.

Currently, she is part of the Four In Contrast exhibit at The Gallery Space, 115 N. Krome Ave, that runs through the month.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@