Downtown became the depository for a second piece of historic artwork related to the history of European colonization of North America Friday when a restored mural was unveiled at the Museum of Science & History on the Southbank.
In 1941, Southern California architect and artist Elmer Grey visited his daughter and her husband, the commanding officer of the Naval Tactical Training Program at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
Grey was so taken by the history of the Spanish and French colonies in North Florida that he painted a 35-foot mural and donated it to the Navy.
The mural joins the 30-foot canvas that decorated the restaurant at Sears, Roebuck & Co. Downtown for more than 20 years until the store closed in 1981.
That mural, by nature artist Lee Adams, is on permanent display at the Main Library.
Grey’s mural tells, through images, the story of North Florida from the French and Spanish colonization to the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, circa 1940.
The mural was displayed in the bachelor officers’ quarters at NAS Jacksonville. The building was slated for demolition, but in 1995 the Navy declared the artwork to be historic enough to be saved.
Len Winter, historic preservation officer with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast, said federal regulations require that significant historic artifacts on government property be preserved and shared with the public.
Winter, a former art curator in Southern California, said he was amazed when he saw the mural inside the condemned building. He said he knew immediately it had to be an Elmer Grey.
That the mural was still intact was equally amazing, he said.
“It’s very unusual to find original fixtures in Navy buildings,” Winter said.
After the mural was removed last year from the wall in the conference room, it was restored over a 12-month period.
A team of 11 conservators removed 70 years of grime and repaired damaged areas before preserving the painting for display at MOSH. It is on long-term loan from the Navy to the museum.
The mural is exhibited in the Wells Fargo Conference Room at MOSH. Each of the four sections has its own QR code, allowing visitors to download an interactive “brochure” explaining the history of the artist and his work.
MOSH Executive Director Maria Hane said the restoration of the mural and its exhibition is even more significant since the City is celebrating the 450th anniversary of French explorer Jean Ribault’s landing in 1562 at the mouth of the St. Johns River.
“It is the museum’s charge to conserve and preserve historic artifacts. This is a wonderful partnership between the Navy and MOSH,” she said.
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