Lincoln Highway will be depicted in mural BY MALINDA OSBORNE SVN REPORTER mosborne@svnmail.com
DIXON - Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition officials and local citizens are teaming up to bring another historic highway attraction to Dixon.
A mural has been proposed at the corner of Galena Avenue and River Street on the north wall of Zero's Bar and west wall of Pattie Hummel Photography.
"It's not going to be a painted mural on walls. It will be painted on acrylic material, and that framing will be attached to the walls, so it should last many years," Mayor Jim Burke said.
The Dixon Tourism Board has appointed a subcommittee - Burke, Bob Gibler, Bonnie Kime and Colleen Brechon-Vancil - to handle the matter. It will meet Aug. 6.
Planning still is speculative at this point, though, because the Federal Highway Administration grant funding the endeavor hasn't yet been announced, coalition Director Bonnie Heimbach said. The status of the grant should be known in August.
Ultimately, coalition officials hope to create 40 more murals in various communities along the former Lincoln Highway over three years. So far, the coalition has completed three murals, in Creston, DeKalb and Rochelle.
The Hub City's mural, at Fifth Avenue and Illinois Route 38, depicts the 1915 travels of writer Emily Post, who made her way across the United States on the Lincoln Highway. Because of the sticky mud caused by heavy rains, Emily and her son, Ned, spent a few days in Rochelle before continuing their trek to San Francisco.
Dixon's mural will be kitty-corner from a Lincoln Highway-themed gazebo, to be built in the parking lot off the southeast end of the Galena Avenue bridge. The gazebo, also to be built with federal funds, will be one of 20 along the Iowa to Indiana stretch.
Each octagonal gazebo will have four historical panels: three identifying them with the historic highway and the fourth offering information on the history of its city.
Reach Malinda Osborne at (815) 284-2222 or (800) 798-4085, ext. 526.
Previous Page|1|Next Page
