Directory

Visual art & murals

Join the directory
All Visual art & muralsMusicTheater & danceFilm & mediaLiterary artsMakers & craft

No approved visual art & murals artists yet — be the first to join.

On the walls

Palatka's downtown murals

Fourteen murals along and around St. Johns Avenue, commissioned and maintained by The Conlee-Snyder Mural Committee. Each one links to their page for the full history and the audio tour.

Take the tour →

  1. Heartbeat of Palatka, c. 1890–1909–1916

    Terry Smith · 205 N. 2nd Street · 14' × 34'

    Downtown street life across three eras. The original was destroyed by a roof leak after Hurricane Frances in 2004, and the artist eventually repainted the whole wall from scratch.

  2. The Putnam House, c. 1891

    Luke Taft · 2nd Street at St. Johns Avenue · approx. 20' × 40'

    The grand hotel that once covered this city block, painted on the site where it actually stood. It replaced an earlier mural of the same subject by Harimandir Khalsa.

  3. The Battle at Horse Landing

    Betty Sutliff · South 3rd Street at St. Johns Avenue · 71' × 9½'

    The Civil War skirmish of 23 May 1864, in which Confederate cavalry under J. J. Dickison captured the Union gunboat Columbine on the St. Johns River.

  4. Night Passage

    Terry Smith · 4th Street at St. Johns Avenue · 16' × 46'

    A steamboat working its way up the Ocklawaha River after dark — the old overnight run between Silver Springs and Palatka.

  5. To God Be the Glory

    Terry Smith · S. Fourth Street at St. Johns Avenue · 20' × 30'

    Billy Graham, who was baptized in Palatka and preached his first sermon at Peniel Baptist Church. He visited the finished mural in person.

  6. Bygone Days

    Joe Puskas · Fifth Street at St. Johns Avenue · approx. 30' × 40'

    A trompe-l'oeil storefront on a completely flat wall — the balcony, the staircase and even the shadows are painted. Only the six windows and the awninged doorway are real.

  7. High Time in Palatka

    Terry Smith · South 7th Street at St. Johns Avenue · 22' × 18'4"

    The circus in town — wagons, clowns, animals and a tightrope walker, with a crowd watching from below.

  8. Harlem Nights in Palatka

    Nina and Ed Mateyunas · St. Johns Avenue at North Eighth Street · 13' × 55'

    The Belton's Society Syncopators, the 1920s jazz band founded by Palatka brothers Cortland and Wilbert Belton that grew into one of the top dance bands in the country.

  9. Mary Lawson Hospital

    Monique Sinclair · 822 St. Johns Avenue · 30' × 12'

    The Palatka hospital where Black and white doctors and nurses worked side by side treating patients of both races, in the segregated South.

  10. The Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad, c. 1906 Currently being restored

    Terry Smith · St. Johns Avenue at North Seventh Street · 13' × 56'

    The railroads that ran through Putnam County in the late 1800s, carrying freight and winter tourists into Palatka.

  11. The Wild West Comes to Palatka

    Nina Larkin Mateyunas · St. Johns Avenue at South Eleventh Street · 13' × 56'

    Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, who brought their shooting exhibition to the railway depot on the Palatka riverfront on 21 February 1908.

  12. Cattle Drive to Paynes Prairie

    Terry Smith · St. Johns Avenue at N. Tenth Street · 14' × 104'

    Cattle driving at its early-20th-century height, with cattle crossing the river by wooden bridge on their way south to Paynes Prairie.

  13. Senator B. C. Pearce Agricultural Mural

    Richard Currier · St. Johns Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets · 12' × 50'

    The potato and cabbage farming around Hastings that grew out of kitchen gardens for St. Augustine's hotels and became the county's agrarian economy.

  14. Seats of Learning

    Kitty Williams · Reid and 11th Streets, on the Price Martin Community Center · 4' × 8'

    Central Academy and Putnam High School, Palatka's first two high schools. Central Academy became Florida's first fully accredited Black high school in 1923; the two integrated in 1969 to form Palatka High School.

Mural details courtesy of The Conlee-Snyder Mural Committee, who commission, restore and maintain these works. Printed tour brochures are available at several downtown shops.