Crews tear down Olympus High mural | The Salt Lake Tribune

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The tile painting on a courtyard wall at the old Olympus High has been demolished.

As reported in my Thursday column, the artwork — 26 feet long and 9 feet high — had been affixed to a brick wall at the Holladay school since 1996. Sisters Rebecca Bullough-Horne and Patricia Bullough began work on the mural in 1992, when Bullough-Horne had been deemed free of cancer.

The cancer returned, however, and Bullough-Horne died in 1998.

Patricia Bullough recently learned that the painting would be included in the tear-down of the high school, directly south of the new Olympus. She and Olympus Principal Mark Manning conferred separately with architects, tilers and contractors who told them the brick was brittle and that the mortar affixing the tile panels was so strong that the tiles would crumble if someone tried to remove them.

The Bullough and Horne families had hoped for a reprieve to explore more options, but the demolition work continued. Crews are saving some pieces of the painting in hopes of returning them to the families.