Ted Perry
The decades-old 280 mural under restoration.
A decades-old mural along U.S. 280 in Mountain Brook is currently being restored through a donation from Embrace Alabama Kids, featuring scenes of the old mill, Jemison Trail and Gilchrist Corner. The project, led by artist Shawn Fitzwater, is underway as ALDOT conducts renovations along the busy corridor.
You could be forgiven if you didn’t notice the mural along U.S. 280 near the water treatment plant.
“You have to look carefully,” Mountain Brook Mayor Graham Smith said. “But if you’ve driven down 280 in the past, you’ll see there’s an old, faded mural there. You can see the outline of an old mural. You kind of have to look for it, but it’s been in disrepair.
“I think it was painted 20-plus years ago, 30-plus years ago,” Smith continued. “We’ve received a number of residential complaints.”
Those complaints will soon turn — if they have not already turned — to praise as a nonprofit received permission from the Mountain Brook City Council to restore the decades-old mural.
“It actually has a picture of the old mill,” Smith said. “Then it has Jemison Trail and then it has a little bit of Gilchrist Corner. It’s Mountain Brook-specific. Really, they just wanted to donate it to the city to enhance the environment. We will obviously give them credit for a tremendous donation.”
Rebecca Morris has been with Embrace Alabama Kids and Embrace Florida Kids for 13 years.
“We were formerly the United Methodist Children’s Home,” she said. “We are working hard at bringing our brand and our ministry and nonprofit to communities. Possibly they’ve heard about us, but we really want to give back to the community and partner and collaborate and get our ministry name out to a broader community in different ways.
“We’ve been around for 130 years taking care of Alabama’s kids,” Morris said. “We’ve just been a ministry [where] we don’t necessarily have to be in the forefront. But we’ve been giving back to our state for so long and want to continue that in communities. We just thought this would be a different way to bring light to what we’re doing.”
Restoration of the mural, which was set for completion during the final week of February, is being done as the Alabama Department of Transportation is performing major renovations to U.S. 280.
“It was fortuitous because of the fact that ALDOT has the barricades up right now,” Smith said following the Feb. 9 meeting of the City Council. “It’s perfect timing for us to do something because it allows the painters to be safe.”
Embrace Alabama Kids will be displayed on the completed mural. The project is led by Shawn Fitzwater of Fitz Signs & Murals. Fitzwater turned heads in 2020 with his unsolicited, uplifting message on the Battle Republic building in downtown Homewood.
