Downtown mural nods to historic past

The Springfield Stagecoach is back in town. A mural showing the historic four-horse stagecoach has been erected and placed on the Handly Building in downtown Springfield.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120511/NEWS02/705119913

Published May 11, 2012 in the Rutland Herald Springfield downtown mural nods to historic past By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Whoa! The Springfield Stagecoach is back in town. A mural showing the historic four-horse stagecoach has been erected and placed on the Handly Building in downtown Springfield, a joint project of artist Jamie Townsend and Nina Jamison, retail director of Gallery at the VAULT, the state craft center in Springfield. “I wanted to paint something vibrant and wanted to put it on a rundown building,” said Townsend. The mural, painted on plywood panels in Townsend’s studio on Pearl Street, depicts the driver, four horses and a small group of riders on the stagecoach as it pulls up in front of the Adna Brown Hotel. The stagecoach operated between Springfield and Charlestown, N.H., in the late 1800s, closing around 1896. Townsend said he got the idea for the painting from an old photograph that was included in a recent book of historical photographs of Springfield. Townsend, who grew up in Springfield and returned about 10 years ago to raise his family, has painted other murals in Springfield, including two 60-foot-long murals at Springfield Plaza Bowl. Townsend said he hopes the mural is just the beginning of public art in Springfield, and an aesthetic effort to dress up some of the older, rundown buildings. Townsend has been working on the mural since January, and he erected the four panels that make up the mural last week. He added a silhouette of a young boy — painted white — looking up at the stagecoach, with the theme of Once Upon A Time. Townsend and Jamison are already thinking of a second, companion mural, portraying the old Springfield trolley, which succeeded the stagecoach in bringing visitors to Springfield. The coach driver in the mural is Wallis Fairbanks, whose granddaughter Mimi Stringham lives in Springfield. Fairbanks was a young man in his 20s in the mural, Stringham said. Her grandfather, who went on to become Windsor County sheriff from 1920-28, worked for the stagecoach until the rail line was built and established. He worked for the trolley for about five years, she said. “I think it’s a grand idea he’s doing it,” said Stringham, who is an officer with the Springfield Art and Historical Society. “It’s a great picture he chose. Most people can’t imagine a stagecoach in town. They don’t think of them being here. That was before the electric rail came in,” she said. The regular railroad didn’t cross the Connecticut River to Springfield, but had a stop in Charlestown, N.H., and the stagecoach and trolley ferried people back and forth, she said. The stagecoach, and then the electric rail, were operated by Fred G. Ellison, she said, and some of the stagecoach drivers, including her grandfather, made the switch to the new modern technology. Townsend, 39, graduated from Springfield High School and went to art school in Florida, with a goal of studying and working all over the world. But after about 10 years, the call of Vermont was strong, he said, and he returned to his hometown to raise a family of four boys and to paint. Townsend paints in the style of abstract expressionism and cubism, and uses paint rollers, rather than brushes, in much of his mural work. He said the mural still needed to be sealed to guard against the outside elements, although he said the painting was well-screened from the sun. “I hope it will last 50 to 100 years,” said Townsend, who is currently painting murals for One Hundred River Street LLC, the developer who is converting the old Fellows Gear Shaper complex into offices and businesses, with a large art gallery being managed by Jamison. Jamison said the developers, John Meekin and Rick Genderson, gave the first $500 toward the project, Rick Bibens donated $250 in materials, and the rest of the money came in contributions from the community. “Jamie’s dedication to the town and his talent that made this happen will hopefully be an inspiration for other individual efforts,” said Jamison, who is coordinator for the Great Hall Public Art Showcase, as well as retail director at Gallery at the VAULT. “We would like to thank the community for their support for this mural and the generous donations sent to the Rotary and the donation box at the Springfield Food Co-op,” Jamison said. Townsend said old factories all over the country are being used by artists as artist colonies, and he said Springfield was ripe for such a conversion. So far the mural has had a somewhat mixed reception, Townsend said. “People are questioning what it’s for,” he said. Townsend said he thinks he’s finally convinced Springfield On The Move, the local downtown development group, not to paint the rundown building white as a spruce-up effort. “I painted the mural to go against the rough brown wood,” said Townsend. He added the large silhouette figure of a boy (the model was a friend of one of his sons) to emphasis the passage of time. Eventually, the mural and boy will say “Once Upon A Time.” “He’s looking past the clouds and just imagining what it would be like back then,” he said.