Go slow. Look and admire.
That approach can reveal surprise and wonder for the most familiar scenes.
Local residents who walked through Homewood on a Haas mural tour July 31 had those reactions to the 15 murals scattered throughout downtown.
Kris Condon led the tour sharing insights on the works designed by Richard Haas and installed by Thomas Melvin and his crews. Condon’s book, “Richard Haas Murals in Homewood, Illinois” published in 2020, provides photos and brief descriptions of each mural.
Condon led a group of about 35 people on the 2 1/2-hour walking tour encouraging a closer look at the images that hundreds of people travel by each week.
Stopping to look carefully and hearing Condon’s explanations of each mural’s history and purpose, along with nuggets of information that Condon calls whimsical “Easter eggs,” gave the familiar sights a fresh appeal.
Condon gave the tour as a fundraiser sponsored by Flossmoor Veterans Memorial Inc., the organization working to develop a permanent veterans memorial at the southeast corner of Flossmoor Park. She is a member of the committee.
The Haas mural project began in the early 1980s, she said, as a way to rejuvenate interest in the downtown area. Haas came to town and saw the rear walls of Ridge Road buildings as a canvas for his work.
While his designs grace buildings in cities across the country, Homewood has the largest collection of Haas murals in the world.
Homewood residents, of course, see the murals just about every day.
Longtime resident Tom Tozer said the tour was an opportunity to learn new things about his own community.
“It’s fascinating. I’ve lived here forever and there are murals I’d never seen before,” he said, highlighting specifically the Independence Day mural at 18219 Dixie Highway and Dixie Highway mural at 18155 Dixie Highway.
Lori Tozer agreed and said she found the little details and the stories behind the murals illuminating.
“Like the guy with the pencil mustache,” Tom said, referring to a character who appears in Independence Day and again in the 1950s Diner mural at 187th Street and Dixie Highway. He’s a mysterious fellow in shades and fedora who is driving a car in both murals.
Condon said many of the people and pets in the murals are based on real people and animals from Homewood or from Haas’ or Melvin’s lives. Not so, the mysterious driver. Condon said she does not know his source.
Others she was able to identify, like the Labrador retriever in the Service Station mural adjacent to Pete’s Auto on Dixie Highway. The dog is based on the late Nikki, one of Mayor Rich Hofeld’s dogs.
When the tour started, Condon invited participants to share their own stories about the murals and Homewood history. At the Independence Day mural, Betty Myers obliged, explaining that the figure riding a bike and wearing a helmet festooned with balloons was based on her son-in-law, Mark Moxley.
“He designed and sewed and created that outfit,” she said, then he rode in the 4th of July parade and threw balls to the crowd. “He only did it two years because the helmet was so heavy and hot that he couldn’t stand to ride in the parade.”
She said he was unaware he would be featured in the mural until it was done and someone tipped him off that his parade outfit had been immortalized.
With the exception of the mystery man in the mustache, “the people you see in the mural are Homewood residents, people who had been at Homewood parades,” Condon said.
While doing research for her book, Haas told her that Independence Day was the only mural where the subject matter was strongly suggested by the mayor and that “the importance of diversity and community needed to be a part of what this mural was.”
The composition of the other murals was left up to Haas, and he tried to capture the character and history of Homewood in the images painted on the sides and backs of commercial buildings.
There are six murals portraying the village’s ties to transportation — two featuring trains, one about bicycles, two about highway travel and one about cars.
The CN Railyard mural on the building at 1940 Ridge Road, includes another “Easter egg.” Condon said while Melvin was installing the mural a local mechanic approached him and said his grandson loved trains, and he wondered if there was any way to mention his name on the mural.
That’s why the engine in the mural has written on it, “Jake, chief engineer.”
Allison and Andy Pacocha said they appreciated hearing the stories behind little details. Andy especially enjoyed the Homewood Theatre mural on the south wall of Melody Mart, 18062 Dixie Highway.
“I vaguely remember the theater. I was 10 when it was torn down,” he said. “It’s a cool redo.”
The theater mural has the distinction of having two versions. The first was installed on the theater building in the early 1980s. When the building was demolished in 1992, the original mural was destroyed.
The existing mural keeps the image of the theater alive.
Condon noted that the theater mural is one that Haas has a regret about. She said he chose movie posters because he admired the artwork, but he wishes he hadn’t included “Gone with the Wind,” a romance that glorifies the racist society of the antebellum South.
The tour concluded at the Homewood Veterans Memorial in order to underscore the need for a similar site in Flossmoor.
“This is meant to be a reflective place in the village of Homewood to acknowledge our veterans,” she said. “There is room and an opportunity to do that with Flossmoor veterans, too.”
The Tozers said the tour was especially meaningful for them because it was an opportunity to support a memorial that will include the names of both their fathers: Lori’s dad, Jim Cerone, and Tom’s dad, Forest “Bud” Tozer.
Former Flossmoor Mayor Paul Braun, who serves as president of FVM Inc., told the group that Haas and Melvin had been invited to attend but were unable to make the trip to Homewood. He read greetings from both men.
Melvin offered a tribute to Haas’ vision for Homewood: “If you were to walk the streets of Homewood and look with the eyes of Richard Haas, you would read its past, see its character in these old storefronts and lament the fact that this intimacy and history was being lost as we all park on its backside. The gentle genius of his solution tastefully executed, celebrated what he saw, and brought it to the reverse sides of main street Homewood, and now Homewood has a new front door.”