The city of Elkhart on Monday will start demolishing a block of dilapidated buildings on South Main Street, paving the way for redevelopment.
But those plans threaten a city landmark.
When you’re driving toward downtown Elkhart from the south, it’s hard to miss the 30-foot-tall mural at the corner of Prairie Avenue and Main Street.
Local artist Kelby Love painted the mural in 1996, part of an effort to reduce gun violence in the city, including shootings at that corner. The mural depicts a giant figure reaching down, seemingly from the sky, and coming between two people on the ground, forcing them to drop their guns.
The city acquired the block’s buildings in 2020. Mayor Rod Roberson says they’re no longer safe and need to come down.
Love, who Roberson says had been a friend since childhood, died in 2018. The city recently has worked with his mother, Glenda Love, on ideas to recreate the mural.
Roberson says the city is talking with a developer interested in building a mixed-use project there, with ground-floor retail and apartments above. The mayor says the developer has agreed to recreate the mural, and the city could include a small park with some other public art.
"That's a high-traffic corner," Roberson says. "We want to keep it livable, keep it attractive, and make sure that we pull the history from where it was to where it's going to be."
