Art walkabout
Butler Area Middle School students and teachers are taking their art classes to the streets of downtown Butler to look at and learn about the murals depicting county history.
The first group of students went on the mural walk Thursday and the rest will go Monday, said middle school teacher Holly Wilson, who guided students through the tour Thursday.
The 10 murals on the walk were painted in 2016 by a group called the Wall Dogs.
In April, the students created murals on paper in school as a part of their art classes. Taking them outside to see city murals is a nice end-of-the-year activity, Wilson said.“Each mural has a historical significance to Butler,” Wilson said.Several teachers accompanied each group of students, including Mac Dehart, who told the students about the General Richard Butler mural on Diamond Street.Butler was granted land in the Pittsburgh area as part of his pension for serving in the Revolutionary War. He became a judge and member of the General Assembly, and the county was named after him even though he never lived in Butler, Dehart said.A few steps away at the Armco Steel mural, Wilson explained the plant changed to AK Steel in 1999 and was recently acquired by Cleveland-Cliffs. The plant was the first in the nation to produce stainless steel coils, create a continuous zinc coating line, and coat steel with aluminum. Wilson also explained that the plant produced steel for ships and vehicles during World War II.Wilson said she helped paint the William “Uncle Billy” Smith mural on the barn behind the historic Senator Walter Lowrie House.
A farmer, blacksmith and mechanic, Smith built the first oil drilling rig and drilled the first well in the country in Titusville. He also started the first oil well fire when the open lamp he used to check the well one night caused gases to ignite. The ensuing fire destroyed the derrick, all the stored oil, the engine house and the home he built next to the well.The Pullman-Standard Steel Car Co. mural on the tier garage pays tribute to the half-mile-long plant in Lyndora that built railroad cars in the early 1900s.Other murals on the tour included the Bantam Jeep mural on West New Castle Street, the Butler Mail Delivery mural on North Street showing a horse and buggy delivering mail on a route between Pittsburgh and Erie, the Cooper Cabin Pioneer Homestead mural on Main Street, the Butler Brewing Company mural on Jefferson Street, the Coca-Cola Recreation mural on West Cunningham Street, and the Diners and Drive-Ins mural on South McKean Street.
