|
Imagine
parking your car
at a meter in front of the T.J. Food Market in Takoma Park. You jump out of your car
and are confronted with a beautiful array
of vibrant colors in a mural titled, "Takoma Junction."
The
mural was painted in 1985 by Sandra Philpott, a former Takoma Park resident,
a few years after the city's centennial birthday celebration, says Carol
Bannerman, a spokeswoman for the Takoma Park Police Department.
Bannerman
says the mural depicts Old Town Takoma Park around the turn of the century.
The city was founded in 1883 as one of the earliest railroad suburbs of the
District and was "touted as a place to get away from the malaria,
swampy area of D.C. and out into the country," Bannerman said.
The
mural captures a Victorian-style house of the 1890s and a historic
figure, Sgt. John Barry of the District's police department. Barry served
as a railroad crossing guard in 1886 who protected pedestrians from crossing
the tracks when a trolley approached, Bannerman says.
"The
mural looks back at what the community was like and the character and events
we had here in Takoma Park," she adds.
| 