280 mural

The 280 Mural is a painted retaining wall to the side of U.S. Highway 280 opposite the Birmingham Water Works' Shades Mountain Filter Plant, just north of Overton Road in Mountain Brook.

The wall was constructed in the 1960s to hold up the adjacent bank when the highway was widened. By the 1970s it was decorated with an abstract geometric pattern designed by Bobby Schaefer and painted with help from a crew.

In 1990 or 1991 the fading mural was covered with a new scene, painted by members of Vestavia Hills High School's "Teens Against a Littered State" (TALS) club. Their mural depicted a mountain landscape.

Years later artist Amy Pleasant tried to get permission to paint over the wall again, but the matter was held up by the Alabama Department of Transportation.

In early 2014 Creighton Tynes of the Magic City Mural Collective proposed to seek funds from donors to paint a new mural on the wall.

References

• Markham, Madoline (January 29, 2014) "Mural project under discussion for 280" Village Living