BERLIN – Excitement is growing in Berlin regarding plans for a mural to depict the Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley.
Members of the Berlin Historic District Commission this week voiced support for plans to paint a mural depicting gospel music legend Tindley, on the wall of a downtown building.
“Berlin will be the catalyst for a Maryland African American art trail through the whole state,” said Carol Rose, chair of the commission.
Rose told commission members that though plans and details for the project weren’t being presented to the commission until October, she was impressed with what she’d seen so far. She and the town’s planning department staff attended a meeting last week with artist Jay Coleman and other stakeholders to discuss the project. Though there were initially plans to have Coleman paint the mural on the Bruder Hill building, Rose said that was deemed cost prohibitive. The project is to be grant funded.
“The texture of the outside of that building would make it more expensive than the grant would cover,” she said.
Instead, the mural will be painted on the side of the old Farlow’s Pharmacy space on the building owned by J.E. Parker.
“You see a whole gang of meters, nine electric meters, on the wall. It’s going to be to the left of that, toward Main Street,” Planning Director Dave Engelhart said, motioning to the space on William Street across from town hall.
Like Rose, Engelhart said he’d been impressed with Coleman’s work.
“It’d be another draw for the town, it’s educational for the kids, and it’s public art,” he said. “It’s beautiful. The things he’s done that we saw … we were very impressed, the whole group of us.”
Rose added that historically, many of Berlin’s shop signs had been painted directly onto the building’s bricks. Those types of signs are still in evidence today at The Globe and Viking Tree Trading. She added that the commission would get a detailed presentation regarding the project next month.
“There will be a presentation in October so the board can say yay or nay but I wanted it to be on everybody’s radar,” she said.
Commission member Robert Poli expressed interest in the concept. He said he often drove by a mural in one of Salisbury’s historic districts.
“It’s really nicely done,” he said.
