Murals of Melrose

Murals of Melrose (MoM) is celebrating the history of our area and its natural beauty with a series of murals on selected buildings in Melrose.

How did this come to pass?

At a recent Melrose Business & Community Association meeting, Zane Greathouse introduced us to the idea of having murals on various buildings throughout the community. By selecting a theme for such murals, we could gain recognition not only for our murals, but a specific theme. Other area communities such as Gainesville, Hawthorne, and Palatka have murals, so why not Melrose?

He told how they converted the family farm into a commercial butterfly operation and now they ship butterflies to every where imaginable. They are continuing to explore new ways to market butterflies and in turn market the Melrose area facilities. They are attracting tour groups from Central and North Florida. He discussed ways that Melrose businesses can benefit from their activities. Melrose can now provide several levels of dining faclilities. If we could offer other outdoor activities and lodging, guests would be inclined to stay longer.

He showed slides of a couple of communities in Europe where the local citizens had butterfly murals painted on various buildings throughout the community. Imagine having beautiful butterfly murals on various buildings around Melrose. Then, we could hold an annual butterfly festival promoting Melrose and their butterflies.

As a side note: Greathouse Butterfly Farm, located just outside Melrose, raises forty-five species of butterflies for exhibits, education, movies and specific releases. Greathouse has gained prominence throughout North America and thus already brought attention to our community.

Note -- We're not deserting our heritage, this is phase one. We still want to record our history in subsequent phases. In fact, our mission statement states: To establish the Melrose area as an artistic community with aesthetically beautiful murals that accurately depict the butterflies, cultural, historical, and natural riches of the area.

If you don't know Melrose, you should come visit. Melrose is located in north-central Florida at the crossroads of SR 26 and SR 21 approximately half way between Gainesville and Palatka. A historic community located on Florida’s First Federal Highway, Bellamy Road (SR 26) - Melrose is most noted for our small-town ambiance and for our numerous, scenic lakes. We plan to soon make it known for its beautiful murals, too.

To see how other communities have enhanced the beauty of their communities, visit Palatka's murals by clicking here or for more Florida murals, click here. They are almost everywhere, so we feel that Melrose needs to create our own unique ambiance by doing something a bit different plus displaying our cultural heritage

Here's a few select murals from Palatka:

What have we done?

We have identified specific buildings for this first phase and sent out a call to artists seeking those who are interested in doing murals for Melrose.

We have launched our fund raising campaign. We're still needing funds to complete phase one. Contributions can be made payable to MBCA/Mom and taken to M & S Bank or mailed to Murals of Melrose, P. O. Box 1301, Melrose, FL 32666.

Our Timetable

We're planning to tie the completion of Phase 1 to the Plein Aire Paint Out which runs from April 1 to May 3, 2009.

Sponsors

The Murals for Melrose Project is sponsored by Bellamy Road Art Gallery, Greathouse Butterfly Farm, Melrose Bay Gallery and Melrose Business & Community Association.

For more information about butterflies, click here.

Photo Credits:
Top row courtesy of the Greathouse family from their travels in various countries
Lower row courtesy of the Conlee Mural Committee, Palatka, Florida