By Taylor Boyd
After weeks of work, the mural at the Concord Corner Store in Meadows of Dan is complete.
The 7.5- by 35-foot mural is a tourist-like map of the highlights and big scenes of Meadows of Dan, according Pepper Martin, who was retained for the project.
Martin, an artist and Patrick County Public Schools art teacher, said locations on the mural include the Meadows of Dan Elementary School, the Meadows of Dan Community Building, Nancy’s Candy Company, Poor Farmer’s Market, rescue squad and fire department, and Meadows of Dan Food Market.
“And then there’s the Meadows Mercantile, Jane’s Country Café, Mabry Mill, the Corner Store, Slate Mountain Presbyterian Church, and then, the old Meadows of Dan Baptist Church – the one that” was destroyed by fire and rebuilt, Martin added.
The idea for the mural was started months ago by Felecia Shelor, of Poor Farmer’s Market, and Casey Davis, of Concord Corner Store. The two applied and received a Patrick County Tourism Grant to fund the project.
Davis said she’s had the idea to put a mural on the blank wall behind her business for years.
Because she could not decide on one thing to define Meadows of Dan, she wanted to put the business community and the Blue Ridge Parkway attractions on the mural as a cartography project, “kind of the things that I think of about my community just to kind of celebrate our little village here.”
“It’s a neat thing. I think the community really likes it because the people that live up there are coming by and are like ‘oh, you included this in there,’” Martin said.
One day when Martin was painting, a lady stopped by and talked about the Meadows of Dan Baptist Church.
“When I painted it, I painted the one that burned, I didn’t paint the one they rebuilt. This lady stopped and she was talking about that church, and she got kind of emotional just seeing it up there. I think it’s nice for the people that live up there to see it all the time,” she said.