Even priceless pieces of American art can hold very little value if they are too big to go into most homes.
That’s the conundrum facing the Charlestown Historical Society right now as they have around six large panels of a mural designed by late Charlestown artist Betty McLain Smith.
Smith is the woman responsible for designing the Bicentennial quarter in 1976.
Now, however, her designs for the Colonial mural pieces in the Bunker Hill Museum – which depict colonists, Native Americans and Puritans in various scenes around Boston – are in dire need of a new home.
Julie Hall of the CHS said the murals were once in the Denni’s Restaurant in downtown Boston on Tremont Street circa 1960. However, when the owners – who were from Charlestown – shut down the shop years ago, they had no home for the striking murals. So, they handed them over to the CHS for safekeeping.
Hall said they would like to preserve them, but the Museum needs the space and has asked that the murals be removed as soon as possible. So it is that the CHS has embarked on a campaign to find them an adopted home.
However, it can’t be just anywhere.
It has to be a very large area.
“We would love to get them out of the museum as soon as possible to whomever wants them,” she said. “They are free for the taking.”
To view the murals or to ask questions about them, contact Tom Coots at the TCB Bank or Hall via e-mail at [email protected].