Contribute for Murals of Melrose

In sharing these pictorial renderings with visitors and citizens, appreciation of the heritage, history and natural beauty of the area will be developed and enhanced.

The MoM is planning to celebrate the history of our area and its natural beauty through a series of murals on selected buildings in the Melrose area.

Melrose is located in north-central Florida at the crossroads of SR 26 and SR 21, approximately half way between Gainesville and Palatka. A historic community located on Florida's First Federal Highway, Bellamy Road (SR26), we are most noted for our quaint friendly town nestled among numerous lakes.

More recently, the Greathouse Butterfly Farm which raises forty-five species of Florida butterflies for exhibits, movies, education and releases has gained prominence distributing their products throughout North America.

Naturally, all of these plans are great for the community in gaining increased recognition and visitation by people from other areas. For example, the Greathouse Butterfly Farm is already bringing tours to their farm and are looking for other area venues to help make their tours more meaningful. This would give visitors additional reasons to come to Melrose to see the murals as well as our beautiful and historic homes nestled by the Bay. In turn, this would result in increased business for Melrose merchants.

There is a Florida Murals Trail that includes Gainesville and Palatka, so why not become another destination on the Trail.

However, we need funds to promote this program and to hire professional muralists for their work. Therefore, we are requesting donations of any size to assist us with this project. These can be made at several points in Melrose - Lake Area Physical Therapy, M & S Bank, and/or Melrose Optical. Or, these could be mailed to the Murals of Melrose, P. O. Box 1301, Melrose, FL 32666-1301. Checks should be made payable to MBCA/MoM.

For your convenience, you may make contributions on-line via PayPal, your bank account or credit card. It is easy and secure.

Should you desire to have a mural placed on your building, let us know.

We thank all for their support to make our community more attractive for our visitors and citizens.

Best wishes,

Laura Hodges

A few select murals from Palatka: