Flood Wall Murals
429 Front St.Portsmouth, OH 45662
740-353-7647
Flood Wall Murals
Though elevated above the Ohio River, Portsmouth has suffered from many Ohio River floods. After a devastating one in 1937, the city had had enough. Between 1940 and 1950 the Army Corps of Engineers built a protective floodwall. It was large and not pretty, but it worked. Eventually, the community saw it as something else: a blank canvas for a large-scale mural project.
Though elevated above the Ohio River, Portsmouth has suffered from many Ohio River floods. After a devastating one in 1937, the city had had enough. Between 1940 and 1950 the Army Corps of Engineers built a protective floodwall. It was large and not pretty, but it worked. Eventually, the community saw it as something else: a blank canvas for a large-scale mural project.
Turning the Portsmouth floodwall into a work of art began in 1992, when longtime local resident Dr. Louis Chaboudy suggested using the wall as a gallery. The idea took off, and by 2002 the 20-foot wall was adorned with dozens of painted murals by a professional muralist from Louisiana, Robert Dafford. He compared the wall to a prison and decided to re-create scenic views its construction had blocked, but he also painted many others telling the more than 2,000-year history of Portsmouth and its local area. That included the Ohio & Erie Canal. The murals are along the south side of Front Street; at its west end is Alexander Point Park, which overlooks both the Ohio and the Scioto rivers. What is now the tree-shaded bank of the Scioto was the city’s port at the end of the Ohio & Erie Canal until it was re-routed in the late 1880s to a new terminus on the Ohio about a mile downstream.
Notes for Travelers
There is a mobile tour for the Portsmouth Murals with an app that can be downloaded to your phone. See the following website for details.
https://portsmouthmurals.com/2019/04/03/portsmouth-murals-mobile-tour/
A public park, overlooking the Ohio River, is located through the western end of the floodwall. It has benches and picnic tables with great views.
The Portsmouth-Scioto County Visitors Bureau operates a Visitor Center (with public restrooms) across the street from the murals at 342 Second Street. The murals are located within the Boneyfiddle Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It has a number of canal-era buildings, as well as excellent examples of late 19th and 20th century architecture.
https://www.portsmouth.org/travel-tourism/
The Scenic Scioto Heritage Trail offers covers an 84-miles a journey through the rugged, heavily wooded Appalachian hill country and through an area rich in history, full of river lore and native American influences. There are currently 41 points of interest along the trail that enables the traveler the opportunity to capture the full flavor of the region and experience the varied topography and natural beauty of the area. More information is available at the website below.
http://www.sciotoheritagetrail.com
Lock #48 in the Rushtown vicinity and Lock #50 in West Portsmouth are separate site entries along the Southern Descent Heritage Trail.
Credits
Jeff Darbee, Nancy Recchie, David MeyerAdditional Resources
Meyer, David. Life Along the Ohio Canal – Licking Reservoir to Lockbourne and Columbus FeederMeyer, David. Life Along the Ohio Canal in the Scioto River Valley