New mural in the works for Wheaton celebration of America’s 250th birthday

Wheaton salutes the Fourth of July with a field of American flags, a lively municipal band concert in the spirit of George M. Cohan, a parade down Main Street with homespun floats and a fireworks display.

The city is already planning to add even more visual pop to this year’s festivities in honor of America’s 250th birthday.

The Wheaton Fine & Cultural Arts Commission has proposed a mural as part of the town’s commemoration of 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It would be the commission’s second major public art project in recent years. The group recruited an artist known as Peru143 to create a mood-boosting mural at a downtown plaza outside of the city’s French Market pavilion. The aha moment: Geometric shapes within the mural spell out WHEATON.

“That exceeded expectations, and you get a lot of community input. It's such an inviting space. And so this presents another, really good opportunity,” City Councilman Scott Weller said of the commission managing the process for a 250th birthday mural.

It’s conceived as a historical mural timeline spanning a Prairie Path retaining wall north of the pavilion. The idea is to depict significant events along a 250-year timeline.

A proposal shows the mural starting with the area’s prairie roots and Potawatomi homeland, then the first European-American settlers moving into the region, and, come 1876, a town shaped by the railway.

By that time, Wheaton had been incorporated, and Jonathan Blanchard, an abolitionist once described as a “man of oak and iron,” was leading Wheaton College as its president.

Another section could feature a Jazz-Age Wheaton in 1926, followed by a look at the city’s celebration of America’s 200th birthday. Randy King, a member of the arts commission, remembers “everything that happened in 1976 during the bicentennial” and painted a patriotic picture for the city council.

“This is when Cosley Zoo came along. Here's the parade in downtown Wheaton in the bicentennial, so you see the floats coming down with the flags waving everywhere,” King said at a council planning session.

Mayor Phil Suess suggested incorporating the band concerts and the “Field of Honor” — 2,000 flags are traditionally posted at Seven Gables Park — as well as recognizable buildings in Wheaton. Weller’s recommendation? A little more Americana.

“I think if a passerby, someone comes to the French market, sees that mural, I would like them to recognize that it's there for the hallmarking of our country,” Councilman Scott Brown said.

The mural would culminate with a forward-looking section focusing on Wheaton as it is today, in 2026, and the “next 250.”

“I think that'll lend itself to the America 250 theme,” Councilwoman Erica Bray-Parker told King.

The commission intends to seek a single artist who specializes in the style of American realism. King also sees the mural as an interactive exhibit.