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(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)

(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)

(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)

(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)

Cassopolis artist Ruth Andrews signs her name at the bottom of her mural of the Orphan Train Monday evening. Andrews, joined by volunteer painters from throughout the community, has spent the summer painting the artwork on the giant grey wall beneath the Dowagiac Post Office downtown. (Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)

What was once a grey slab of stone beneath the Dowagiac Post Office is now a medley of bright colors.

What was once an assuming downtown wall has become a canvas touched by the hands of dozens of local artists. What was once a blank slate is now a vibrant tapestry that tells the story of one of the city’s most important historical milestones.

Soon, the public will be able to witness this remarkable transformation in its completed form.

Cassopolis artist Ruth Andrews is currently making the final touches to the city’s newest piece of public art, a mural depicting the 1854 arrival of the first Orphan Train in Dowagiac. Andrews said the piece, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, is around 99 percent complete, with only a few minor tasks left before its ready for its public unveiling during the Under the Harvest Moon Festival next month.

Throughout the summer, Andrews and an army of volunteer painters worked on turning the once drab concrete structure into a painting about the Orphan Train, the famous U.S. orphan relocation program that operated from 1854 to 1929. Dowagiac served as the first stop  during the program’s maiden voyage, which transported young children living on the streets of New York City to new homes in the Midwest.

Andrews captures the journey of this group of children, from their beginnings living in squalor, to their fateful trip aboard the train, to their ultimate destination in Dowagiac — with some finding happiness among their new families and others remaining in the shadows.

The Cassopolis artist has worked more than year with the Dowagiac Area History Museum, the City of Dowagiac and others in the community to bring the mural to life. She worked with Dowagiac Area History Museum Director Steve Arseneau before, in 2009 to help create a similar mural in Cassopolis, that depicted the Kentucky Raid of 1847.

Like with that project, Andrews enlisted the help of volunteers to create the Orphan Train mural. Dozens of people offered to lend their talent and creativity to the project, from elementary school students to senior citizens, who worked in rotating shifts once or twice a week from early June through late August.

“It was really a wonderful process,” Andrews said. “The volunteers were all over the map in terms of skill, but we were able to give every one of them something to do that they were comfortable with handling. Some of them really surprised me with the level of enthusiasm they brought to the project.”

After the initial phase of work, Andrews and several more experienced artists went over the mural to refine the work and to add more details, the artist said.

“I didn’t want to paint over people’s work anymore than I had to, to make it look like a cohesive work of art,” Andrews said.

The grand unveiling of the finished mural will be hosted in conjunction with the city’s annual fall festival, which will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14. Although she and other members of the Orphan Train Mural committee are still working out details of the ceremony, Andrews said they will recognize the many artists who helped bring the mural to life, who will get a chance to have their photo taken next to the portion of the painting they helped create.

“Looking at the nearly finished mural now and realizing just how far the project has come, is a very, very wonderful feeling,” Andrews said.

“It’s a little bittersweet, too,” she added. “When you finally let go of a piece of art, it doesn’t belong to just you anymore. It’s out there, and it takes on a life of its own.”

On top of sharing an important slice of Dowagiac history, Andrews said she hopes the finished mural will inspire the creation of other works of public art in the city. The artist added that she would “jump at the chance” to work on another local mural.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the museum will host another Orphan Train related event, a reunion for descendants of those who once participated in the adoption program. During the free event, the community will have a chance to see a slideshow showing photos of the creation of the mural.

The Orphan Train mural project is funded by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council as well as more than $4,500 worth of donations from the community.

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