Willard mural restoration closer to completion

Representatives from the Spirit of ’76 Museum in Wellington, as well as several guests, were given a first-hand view of progress being made on one of the museum’s three Archibald Willard murals, painted for the Masons around 1875, on Jan. 24.

Southern Lorain County Historical Society board members, as a way to thank the community who have supported The Spirit of ’76 Museum and its endeavors to preserve southern Lorain County history, invited those interested to take a trip to the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) in Cleveland to see the 13-foot-wide mural in person, as well as several other paintings, furniture, and textiles housed at the Cleveland lab.

ICA’s Wendy Partridge and Andrea Chevalier spoke about the work that has been completed on the mural thus far, which included gently removing dirt and other materials from the mural’s delicate surface.

Total cost for the project is about $34,000, with $18,000 coming from a grant awarded to the museum by the Ohio Historical Connection in 2019. Among those to tour the facility and see the mural was Andy Verhoff, History Fund Grant Manager for the Ohio History Connection.

The next step will be returning the mural to The Spirit of ’76 Museum, where it will be assembled inside the museum’s first floor and hung inside the main entrance for visitors to admire.