Barry hangs mural celebrating local history
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By DAVID CAMPHOUSE
Submitted photo
A mural was hung last week on the southwest corner of Main and Bainbridge streets in Barry. The mural celebrates the history of the community. Featured in the mural are the town’s history of apple orchards, an early Barry physician named Alfred Baker, and an image of Barry’s Civil War Monument. The community commissioned the mural in an effort to beautify downtown Barry and – along with the Hart and Wyatt building Barry postcard mural and a recently erected Looking For Lincoln sign – attract visitors to the community.
Thanks to a $5,000 grant from the Pike County Accommodations Tax Project Funding Program, the City of Barry hung a new mural last week, which celebrates the community’s history. The mural is hung at the southwest corner of Main and Bainbridge streets on a building owned by County Board member Derek Ross.
Featured in the mural are the town’s history of apple orchards, an early Barry physician named Alfred Baker, and an image of Barry’s Civil War Monument.
According to Barry Ward C Alderwoman and Acting Curator of the Barry Historical Museum, Marynel Corton, the community commissioned the mural in an effort to beautify downtown Barry and celebrate its history.
“The purpose is to recognize the history of Barry and add something pleasant to look at downtown,” Corton said.
Corton said that she and Barry Mayor Shawn Rennecker led mural artist Scott Lindley through the Barry Historical Museum – located above the Barry Public Library – to help him find inspiration for the mural.
Lindley, according to Corton, fixated on Barry’s apple growing tradition, as well as the story of an English born doctor, who practiced in Barry – Alfred C. Baker. The mural also features Barry’s Civil War monument, which is located in Barry’s Lafayette Park.
“Mayor Rennecker and I led the artist through the museum, and he picked these items because he thought they were indicative of important parts of Barry’s history,” Corton said. “And we agreed with him.”
According to information provided by the museum tree fruits were cultivated as early as the 1830s in and around Barry. Apples soon became an important commercial product in the area.
Dr. Alfred C. Baker, also featured on the mural, was a young English-born doctor who set up shop in Barry in 1837.He first attended to rural patients by horseback and then by buggy. He was said to have purchased the community’s first buggy. During the Civil War, Baker was an outspoken patriot and spoke out against southern sympathizers in the community.
In addition to celebrating Barry’s history, Corton believes that the new mural – along with other works of public art and interpretative signs – could bring additional visitors and tourists to the community.
“Along with the Barry postcard mural on the side of the old post office and a recently erected Looking For Lincoln sign by the Baptist Church, we think the new sign could help generate interest in the area and attract visitors, and it could get people that might be going to New Philadelphia or Hannibal to spend time in Barry,” Corton said.
In addition to the signs and murals mentioned in the article, there is another Barry-themed mural on the wall of the Hart and Wyatt Building and a new welcome sign planned to be installed at the intersection of Rodgers and Illinois Route 106, which will be viewed by many entrants to the community as they come in from Illinois Route 106 and Interstate 72.
