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It took Dale Jolley two weeks to restore a seven-decades-old mural depicting early educators, pioneers and places in Draper. But the historical art piece now needs a new home.
Created in 1938 by artist Paul Smith, the mural was originally housed in the old, vacated Draper Park School. It now sits in limbo — bound and wrapped for storage — in a Salt Lake County workshop owned by Jolley, who is a restoration specialist.
Where it will end up is anybody's guess.
Jean Hendricksen, a member of a committee formed to save the mural, wants it to hang in a new high school scheduled to open in Draper during the 2013-2014 school year.
"It was originally in a school in Draper," Hendricksen said. "It would be good to have it in a school again."
Committee Chairman Bob Day also thinks it would be appropriate in a school but is willing to put it elsewhere.
"I think it ought to be in a city hall," he also suggested.
The 8-by-16-foot mural, which was painted 73 years ago as a Works Progress Administration project, depicts the settlement of Draper, construction of a pioneer fort, and the planning and building of the Park School. It also contains depictions of more than 100 important individuals from the era.
"It's a people portrait, and that's its real appeal," Jolley said.
Its central figure is John R. Park, who was a prominent educator in Draper. It also depicts the city's first teacher, William R. Terry, as well as early pioneer men and women.
To restore the mural, artist and restorer Jolley removed some minor vandalism, paint-ball stains from a police training that was conducted in the vacant school and loads of glue on the back of the old canvas. The mural was originally made in three pieces, and Jolley removed each piece from the wall of the vacated school.
"The biggest problem was getting it off the wall," Jolley said. "It wasn't meant to come back off."
Jolley started his career as a restorer at the University of Utah's Museum of Fine Arts. He had studied architecture while at school but decided to continue with restoration work after realizing how much he liked to repair things.
"It's the ultimate fixer-upper job," he said.
Jolley went on to work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, traveling the world to create decorative pieces for temples and restoring old ones. He has worked in 85 different temples, and is currently in Billings, Mont., doing maintenance on some of his work from 10 years ago.
Jolley was approached about restoring the Draper mural several years ago. He said he was lucky to find two weeks between February and May to fix the mural while he worked on other projects.
The restored mural was unveiled May 6 at Draper City Hall before being put into storage.
"I was delighted with it," Day said of the refurbished mural.
Day said $6,000 has already gone into saving the mural. It will cost about that same amount to put a sturdy backing on it and hang it somewhere.
"There's almost 100 years worth of history in it, and we just couldn't let it go," Day said.