About
Murals depicting early 20th-century African-American life along a rail spur that ran on the elevation behind the painted walls. The "people of color" lived in the Red City and Little Africa neighborhoods and worked for the local lumber mill or surrounding orange groves. The settlement was named Red City because the mill owner painted all the homes red, the cheapest paint color. The concrete retaining wall that the mural is painted on is over 100 feet long and is all that survives of the ramp of a railroad spur that took wealthy winter visitors up the hill to the College Arms Hotel. This hotel,
formerly called the Parceland, was purchased by John B. Stetson, the famous Philadelphia hat maker, who greatly expanded and remodeled its buildings and grounds. The train and its passengers are depicted at the eastern-most end of the mural. However, the majority of the wall depicts what those passengers would have seen from their railroad car while riding through DeLand during the early 1900s; residents laboring at the various industries that contributed to the city’s booming economy.
