Saturday 13 May 2017

Southampton, Ontario - Mural

This mural is painted on wooden panels but is blended into the brickwork. The people are added images.
A couple of weeks ago I was up in the Owen Sound area tagging along with my neighbor. He had a few calls to make up that way before we headed further north up into the Bruce Peninsula. We planned  to photograph some of the area lighthouses. As it turned out we ran into a lot of rain and cut our trip short. On the way home we stopped in Southampton to take a look at this realistic looking mural painted on an old mill building along highway 21...George Dutka

Too bad the day I visited it was raining and cars are parked out front...I am sure I will be back that way later this summer.

5 comments:

  1. Neat...I like the way it seems the locomotive is going to come out of the building and plow right into the cars...

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    1. I thought it was very realistic also...want to take a second look at it sometime without the cars in the way...George

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  2. The building is the old Fitton-Parker Furniture factory. As kids we ran up to the station every weekday afternoon between 3 and 4 when the local freight arrived and often got to ride around during the switching of cars at both furniture factories and the lumberyard. Sometimes we rode to Port Elgin and walked home. At night at 11pm when the usual RDC came in and left the following morning at 7am. On long weekends there was usually an Alco RS? pulling 2 or 3 coaches. I think the original artist of this picture was to be Allen Hilgendorf who did many murals up our way. He passed away and this fellow did it. If I remember right Allen is in the cab and it is his wife watching as it comes out.

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    1. Hi John:
      Thanks for all the additional information...boy you know your stuff about Southampton...really nice to know more about this location...George

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  3. The building is the Fitton-Parker Furniture factory. We used to run up to the station between 3 and 4 during the week when the local freight arrived to move cars around between the Hepworth, FP and lumberyard. Sometimes we'd ride the train to Port Elgin and walk the 5 miles home. At 11 pm an RDC would arrive and leave the next morning at 7am. holiday weekends had an RS? pulling 2 or 3 coaches. I believe the original artist was to be Allen Hilgendorf but he passed away and this fellow did it. I believe Allen is in the cab and his wife is waving as the train goes by. About 1/2 mile south is the scene of a washout where a steam locomotive fell through a washout killing the driver and fireman. you can also see where the wye was and at the local museum pictures show the tracks going to the long dock near Chantry island.

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