Thirty-nine local artists associated with the Fort Myers Mural Society have painted 57 murals of people and scenes from Fort Myers' past - when the neophyte settlement was a port dominated by seven long piers that jutted into the Caloosahatchee River. The artists met recently to talk about the importance of the project and what they hope the public derives from their paintings.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, McCollum Hall was THE place to be in the Dunbar community. Especially when B.B. King, Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington came to town.
The bands usually played upstairs in the Art Deco-style building on Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard but the music-loving crowds often spilled outside and into the yard affectionately called Buck’s Backyard (named after businessman Clifford “Buck” McCollum Sr.).
“A lot of people couldn’t afford to go in,” says artist Shari Shifrin, standing in the grass outside of McCollum Hall. “So they would hang out here all night long, sitting back here with a little fire, checkers, chess and just jam along.”
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