The original creator of a Hall’s Hill mural depicting the neighborhood’s Black history is returning to repaint the artwork, after McDonald’s demolished it last fall.
D.C. artist Roderick Turner will replace the mural on a paneled structure, which will be attached to poles at 4834 Langston Blvd facing the Langston-Brown Community Center, Wilma Jones, president of the John M. Langston Citizens Association, told ARLnow.
“The status right now is that we are looking for an appropriate studio space where the panels can be painted,” Jones said.
McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment. Neighbors were left in dismay in October when the fast food chain, while in the process of demolishing and rebuilding its Langston Blvd location with a “modernized” look, unexpectedly toppled a cinderblock wall that included a 33-year-old mural celebrating the once-segregated neighborhood’s Black history.
Following outcry from the wall’s destruction, McDonald’s said in a statement that it had to be replaced “due to safety concerns related to its age and structural condition.”
The chain later made an apology to the John M. Langston Citizens Association and Langston Boulevard Alliance, and told ARLnow it was “actively working with community groups to ensure the next steps honor and reflect the spirit of our neighborhood.”
At the moment, a blank fence stands behind the restaurant where the mural once was, bordering the neighborhood’s tennis courts. The new, paneled design will help mitigate damage and allow for more permanence, Jones said.
“McDonald’s actually came up with that, of course, because this is their second time paying for this mural to be installed,” Jones said.
The fast food chain had previously paid for the mural to be restored in 2020 after a contractor damaged the former wall with a snowplow.
Jones said the replacement design will feature the same iconic figures and places in Hall’s Hill’s Black history, including the neighborhood’s African American fire station, the Langston Stags basketball team, John M. Langston and the Zappa Ladies Dance Troupe.
“The first two murals were actually painted directly on a cinderblock wall,” Jones said. “The technology for this is much more advanced, and so there are going to be panels that the artist is going to paint the mural on in a studio environment, and then those panels will be transported to the Langston-Brown Community Center, where they’ll be placed on the pole structures that are being installed.”
Once the painting phase begins, the panels should be up in about four or five months, Jones said. She hopes they’ll be more resistant to any future mishaps.
“We’re very excited about the fact that it’s going to be put up using this new technology, which means that, in case there’s another issue or problem … we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Jones said. “The mural should be able to be there for a much longer time without having to worry about that structural damage.”
