The city of Lake Wales, Florida is not unique in having more than 30 murals painted on the exterior walls of buildings in the historic downtown district.  However, it may be the only one with organized opposition to any further “desecration” of those structures.  A group of petitioners is demanding that no additional murals be painted, calling them “legalized grafitti.”  Their plea may be moot inasmuch as most available “canvas” has already been used.
                                              
Some of the murals showed street scenes of the early 1930s prior to the real estate bust.  Others depicted the turpentine industry which preceded cattle ranching and citrus production as the economic stimulus of the area.
All the murals were completed by volunteer amateur artists under the watchful eye of longtime resident artist and art instructor,   Tom Freeman.  Funding was by private donations.  No tax monies were involved.  Other murals commemorated individual characters who left their marks on the community.
                                             
The late Jesse Williams is shown waiting for his next customer.  Jesse operated a shoeshine stand at the entrance to the Rhodesbilt Arcade for 37 years.  His clientele were the professionals whose offices were downtown–lawyers, doctors, real estate and insurance agents, business owners, etc.  He was an affable gentleman with a quick smile and always a humorous anecdote or two.  He didn’t charge much but his tip can didn’t rattle; it filled up with folding money.  He put two sons through college shining shoes five days a week.  I was kidding around with Jess one day and asked him if he ever got a Sidewalk Business Permit.  He knew I was a reporter and was a bit reluctant to anwer at first.  Finally he said, ” Naw sir, Mr. Kenny, I never bothered the  folks at city hall.  They’s busy over there.”
                                                        
Everybody  loved Burt Frizell.  He operated the Barrell Restaurant directly across from the old city hall.  All the city officials and most downtown business workers took breakfast and lunch there.  Burt would arrive six mornings a week at 2:30 to get his famous donuts ready for the morning rush–13 to the dozen, thank you.  The precocious black lab is Smut, the locksmith’s dog.  Smut roamed the city streets freely and each morning came to Burt for a free creme-filled donut.  He left us a bit prematurely and a whole lot overweight.   The author built and painted the sign above the building ( which, in the 1950s was an A & W Root Beer Drive In).  When Burt passed away the building was razed in favor of a municipal parking lot just days before it was to be declared a Building Of Historic Interest.   Even the city’s trash cans are subject to the artists’ brushes:
                                                   
Is it art or not?  Since I no longer report for the paper and I don’t live within the city limits I don’t have a dog in that fight.  It’s still fun to sit back and watch the squabble, though. 

Lake Wales has is peculiarities.  A case in point:  in the November, 2007 race for a city commission seat the African-American community rallied behind and successfully elected a white man to that position on the board.  That in and of itself is not unusual.  This is.  The black community–nearly en masse–supported a white man who was John Paul Rogers, former state Grand Dragon of the United Klans Of America (KKK).  Go figure.