Working with artist John Ellsberry, in 2023 GRIA applied for and received a Maryland State Arts Council Conservation Grant to conserve and restore his original 1987 work. From 2023-2024 John Ellsberry and team worked on the project to conserve the artwork culminating with a celebratory event in the Sisson Street Community Park on October 5th, 2024. Read below for the history of this iconic mural, and to contact the artist.
History of the Mural
To enter the neighborhood of Remington in Baltimore from the west, one has to cross the barrier that is I-83 and the Jones Falls that winds its way through the city before dumping out into the Inner Harbor. Those who live here know that Kathleen Ambrose is right when she said to the Baltimore Sun, “You know when you see John Ellsberry’s painted alligator at the end of the 28th Street Bridge that you’re in Remington,” (Rasmussen 1). Ellsberry’s iconic “Alligator Mural” began as his submission idea for the Baltimore Mural Contest, an anti-graffiti campaign in 1987. The unusual shape of the barrier wall at the end of the 28th Street bridge provided lots of space but a restrictive shape. Ellsberry’s idea was to use the Maryland, then Baltimore, Zoo located in Druid Hill Park on the other side of the bridge for inspiration. He developed the idea to create a troop of three alligators that seemingly crossed over from the zoo and were making their way to the neighborhood of Remington, ready to cross Sisson Street. [BOPA video on John & mural]
When the mural was completed, it was immediately honored by the City of Baltimore and The Baltimore Coatings Association at the Peale Museum. The mural was added to the listing of featured mural across Baltimore City by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) [BOPA listing] and mentioned by Dan Rodricks in his 1994 article about the murals of Baltimore. The mural stood sentinel at the western entrance to Remington for the next ten years or so, attracting visitors and welcoming residents home as they came off the interstate. When the mural was tagged with graffiti in 2006, the Executive Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art which rests on the northern edge of Remington, reached out to Ellsberry and coordinated with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods to provide a conservation grant that would ensure that the damaged mural sections were brought back to life.
The mural carries its own status as a local work of art. It is featured in Visit Baltimore’s Remington Guide, BOPA’s must see murals on the BOPA Mural Map, and has been chosen for inclusion in the 2023 edition of “111 Places in Baltimore That You Must Not Miss” by Allison Robicelli and John Dean [attach photo of book, Visit Baltimore’s Remington Guide, BOPA Mural map].
Impact of the Mural on Remington
The resilience of the “Alligator Mural” made it an apt choice for the cover of Kathleen C. Amrose’s 2012 history of the Remington neighborhood, “Remington: The History of a Baltimore Neighborhood.”
In the ten years since the book was published, Remington has increasingly adopted the symbol of the alligator from the mural as a neighborhood mascot. The neighborhood association, The Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA) started adopting the alligator motif as the organization’s logo on the website and promotional materials in 2015. Fellow artist Justin Duvall created an homage to the “Alligator Mural” for the inaugural Rem Fest (Remington Festival) promotional materials and t-shirts in 2018 [attach photo of poster].
This has continued for all of the following Rem Fest events and has helped to cement Ellsberry’s imagery with the identity of Remington.
Almost catty cornered to the “Alligator Mural” lies The Sisson Street Park, a community garden and gathering space created by the residents of Remington through an Adopt-a-Lot license with the City of Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development. To celebrate the first phase of the revitalization of the space in 2018, GRIA commissioned a mural funded through BOPA that would be a collection of imagery on the chain link fencing edging one side of the park and the storage container anchoring the gathering space in the center. The chosen design of an alligator on the shipping container was an intentional nod by the chosen artists to Ellsberry’s original “Alligator Mural” around the corner [Baltimore Magazine article].
Ellsberry’s alligators have even inspired the naming of a beer by the local maker Peabody Brewing. The 2021 edition IPA was dubbed “Remington’s IPA (Improbable Pet Alligator)” and Peabody asked Justin Duvall, the same artist who created Rem Fest’s alligator themed materials, to create the can art [event link]
Conservation work 2023-2024
Upon receiving the grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, John Ellsberry and Team started work to restore the mural to its original condition, by removing DOT overpaint, cleaning the surface and repainting the entire wall, to rectify what has shown signs of decline over the years, due to discoloration and the elements. During this process they repainted the majority of the mural surface, installed a plaque to acknowledge the artists and work that has been done and are planning a celebratory event in October of 2024.
The Mural continues to gain attention in Baltimore, with Baltimore Magazine writing a large article about the process and the original artwork by John Ellsberry. [Baltimore Magazine Link].