NEW MURAL DEPICTS Winchester’s past

By Editor | July 21, 2026 |

Just about half done, this is the mural so far on the side of Bob Howard’s Sandy Creek Construction building located at 104 S. Hill St. in Winchester. (Carmen Ensinger/River County News)

By Carmen Ensinger

Winchester is rapidly becoming a town that is known for its murals.
Bob Howard, owner of Sandy Creek Construction, is in the process of painting the entire side of his 20 foot tall metal building to depict several key aspects of Winchester history.
There are already two other murals in Winchester – the Grow Winchester mural that welcomes visitors as they enter Winchester on the side of Rural Cyclery and the other one on the south side of the Square on the last building to the east – Alice’s Attic. This mural depicts two little girls visiting with Lincoln. The story is Lincoln stayed at their house when he was passing through or when he was in Winchester debating Stephen A. Douglas on the Nebraska Bill.
Howard has been working on this mural since June, along with his sister, and able assistant, Pam Sethaler of Pittsfield.
“We are not quite done with it yet,” Howard said. “This is going to be an ongoing project for at least the rest of the summer as there are several more things we want to depict.”
Of course, the first thing to be done was the tribute to the Nation’s 250th birthday complete with a massive eagle at the top center of the building along with the dates 1776-2026.
In addition, so far, he has a vintage train that appears to be coming out of the corner of the building, Big Foot looming over Elmer and Merrilyn Fedder who are reading an issue of the Winchester Times (Elmer was long-time publisher of the Winchester Times), head shots of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for when the two met up at the Winchester Square for the great Lincoln-Douglas debate on the issue of slavery in 1854.
Howard was asked what prompted him to want to do this mural.
“When I bought this building 18 years ago and when I come down the road to turn in here you look down where the old tracks were and you see the corner of the building,” he said. “And then when they came up with this 250th Anniversary celebration I thought well, it’s time for me to do something like this if I want to do it. It is just a little something to add to the town of Winchester.”
If Winchester has one claim to fame, it is the meeting of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. Actually, it can be said that Winchester helped set the course for the election of Lincoln as our 16th president. And it all began in the Winchester Square.
Abraham Lincoln first publicly challenged Stephen A. Douglas’s “Nebraska Bill” during a Whig County convention on Aug. 26, 1854, in the Scott County Courtroom, which was located in what is now the Winchester Square.
Because this bill allowed for the expansion of slavery, which Lincoln was vehemently opposed to, he was so aroused that he re-entered politics to challenge it after being out of politics for five years.
The Nebraska Bill, later known as the Kansas/Nebraska Act, was drafted by Douglas and coined the term “Popular Sovereignty” which gave new territories and emerging states the right to choose by popular ballot if slavery was to be permitted or banned.
The bill effectively cancelled the Missouri Compromise, which during the previous 34 years had allowed limited expansion of slavery in the nation.
Lincoln’s anti-Nebraska speeches and historic 1858 debates with Douglas gained him national political recognition.
“Stephen A. Douglas is a big part of Winchester history as he is from here,” Howard said, “But Lincoln being here and debating him over the Nebraska bill, that was a big deal in the day and I know our mayor, is working on getting a statue to go on the square next to the statue of Stephen A. Douglas. We have both Lincoln and Douglas on the right-hand corner of the building.”
Still to come, Howard says he wants to paint the Scott County Courthouse in the background, but that will have to wait until the weather cools off some.
“Since it is a metal building, when the weather is very hot, the building itself gets very hot and its difficult to paint on hot metal,” he said. “So, we are going to have to wait until the weather cools down before we pick it up again.”
What is most impressive about the renderings on the building is that they are all being drawn free-hand.
“Most people these days use stencils, but I always liked to paint so I just get a picture in my mind and go from there,” Howard said. “The train is like a combination of four different trains put together, but they were all trains that did run through here.”
Howard has drawn the train to where it looks like it is actually coming out of the corner of the building with a big steam cloud training behind it.
“It was so hot the day I painted that the paint would dry instantly and I couldn’t blend anything into it,” he said. “So, I still have a little bit of work to do on that.”
Unfortunately, the weather has continued to just get hotter and work has pretty much stalled for now.
“We really haven’t done anything as far as creating anything else because it has been so hot,” Howard said. “Once the temperatures cool down we will get started back again and have it completed, hopefully by this fall. It has just been too hot to paint on that metal, though.”
The building is located at 104 S. Hill St. in Winchester so be sure and drive by frequently to look for updates.