The Piers Mural, Lewisburg Pa

 
The  Parallax Mural in Lewisburg, 539 Cherry Alley, Lewisburg, PA 17837
Located right off the Rail Trail, behind the Siam Restaurant.

From Huffnagle park, cross market street at the railroad tracks, entering the rail trail.  The piers will be visible almost immediately on your left.  [It's not always this wet  here- we've had a LOT of rain recently]

Parallax is "the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions."

Steve Gibson, Founder of Milton Art Academy, painted a mural on 18 of The Piers, "an arc of 32 concrete monoliths which are one of the most prominent industrial ruins in town."

We had stopped by to watch the progress of the painting of the mural, in April of 2023

WNEP reported that the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership received a multi-year state grant for $100,000 to bring art to this park.  Plans include lighting, benches, and a small stage.

Mural in Progress, April 2023

Labeled "coal trestle" on the 1925 Sanborn Map

I had labeled these "Cannery Track Supports" in a previous post, based on "old timers" remembrances.  I was corrected by a modern researcher, who looked at the Sanborn maps and found this image.  Is it possible the tracks also came across to the cannery?  That I can't tell you.  I do hesitate to disagree with others memories, but also acknowledge that our memories can be faulty.  There were many, many changes in this area over the decades,  the cannery was demolished sometime around the 1972 flood.  In 1942 an article described the cannery, mentioning that the "shipping room which connects to the Penna R.R. siding is also two stories."

The Piers Before The Mural

In 2022, The Lewisburg Downtown Partnership awarded a grant to local artist, Steve Gibson, to create an outdoor temporary public art mural for "The Piers Art Park". 

Before the Mural

A press release stated:

"The Piers Art Park area was a coal yard with sheds, office, and scale house with one trestle connecting the Pennsylvania Railroad (the east/west railroad, now the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail) and one trestle connecting the Reading Railroad (the north/south railroad)."

Other murals in Lewisburg include:

• "Modern Art Alley" on Cherry Alley between 3rd & 4th streets.  
• Honoring Donald Heiter - on the Heiter Community Center Building at North 5th and St John Sts.

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The area on the 1913 Sanborn Map

1925

1944

William "Bill" Guyer Obit, 1978