Darline Grubbs, Manitou Springs, Colo., has her work cut out for her. It’s her job to restore and renew two large murals in Fort Scott’s Liberty Theatre.
“If you look on that side, we are patching up the mural because it broke from the walls,” Grubbs said. “This side, before we started painting, it was all grayed.”
The 40-feet long by 12-feet high murals were originally painted in the 1930s by George Kieffer. On one wall, there is a scene of the Fort Scott National Historic Site in its heyday, with dragoons lined up on horseback. On the opposite wall stands a portrait of the town square from the 1840s.
Grubbs and her daughter, Wendy Davis, Littleton, Colo., have spent several days working on patching up, repainting and restoring. After a three-day break, the pair will return to finish the work by the end of the month.
The restoration work was started after Grubbs was contacted by theater owners Paulette and Jim Smith.
“We wanted to update the murals because they’re there,” said Paulette Smith. “We couldn’t let them get wasted and fall apart. My husband said we had to do it or lose it. He liked them and didn’t want to lose them.”
While Grubbs and her daughter worked touching up the horses and dragoons Wednesday afternoon, others were working on putting spackle on the opposite mural. Portions of the wall have fallen down, leaving soldiers’ faces missing, parts of buildings gone, and, in places, the sky of the murals was falling like a Chicken Little story.
On the north side, the mural jutted up against the exterior wall.
“It may have been holding the wall up in places,” Grubbs said. “You know, like bumper stickers holding a car together.”
It’s all a part of the renovation and restoration of the Liberty Theatre, which was bought in 2005 by the Smiths and turned into a working theater once more.
Numerous special events, concerts, and weddings have been hosted at the site since then, and the restoration work has a deadline: The first show of the year is set for August 29, when Las Vegas group The Scintas comes to the theater. Information for the fall slate of shows can be found at www.fslibertytheatre.com.
All told, the murals are just part of the overhaul of the theater by the Smiths. Just listen to theater manager Jill Gray.
“They have brought this place back,” Gray said. “I worked here before they renovated it. They have made this into a show piece. It gives people the chance to get out of a small town without having to leave.”
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132.
FORT SCOTT —
