Artistic space

Landmark Park brings murals, sculptures outdoors

Dothan’s Landmark Park is known for its historic attractions — the Brown’s Crossroads one-room schoolhouse, the 1908 Headland Presbyterian Church and the Waddell House. But its newest attraction is unique among the Wiregrass history preserved within the park.

Chapel in the Oaks is both an outdoor venue and art gallery of murals and sculptures. Those behind the creation see it as a unique setting for weddings and other events.

Mark Shertzer, a local pathologist and artist who spearheaded the effort, painted two of the murals in Chapel in the Oaks. Shertzer, a member of Wiregrass Electric Cooperative, spent more than a year working to make the outdoor venue a reality. Sculptures and murals surround a stretch of green space not far from the park’s Stokes Activity Barn. The chapel is surrounded by young oak trees planted to eventually shade the area.

“Look at it and see it not as it is today, but what it will be in 10 or 20 or 30 years,” Shertzer says. “These trees will grow and mature and create not a chapel but a cathedral of the oaks, and it will be spectacular.”

Local and national muralists were recruited to paint the murals on a series of rounded brick backdrops, including Illinois artist Jamie Stang Ellis and Atlanta’s Charly Palmer. Local artists who created murals include Amy Cooper, Wes Hardin and Jay Hare.

The smaller murals feature Cooper’s hummingbirds, Palmer’s take on a Black church choir, Ellis’ trio of rural farm scenes and Hare’s depiction of agricultural life by early Muscogee Creek Native Americans.

“Landmark Park defines the very idea that the past is never dead, that we are shaped by what has gone before us,” Shertzer says, referencing a quote from a William Faulkner play featured on a granite plaque at the chapel’s entrance.

There are 14 murals in total. Twelve smaller murals line the sides of the space, and two larger murals serve as an altar backdrop, including a piece by Hardin featuring doves and dogwood blossoms. On the other side of Hardin’s altar mural is a painting by Hare still in the works and intended as a tribute to Dothan and the Wiregrass. The altar mural is flanked by wooden painted sculptures by Shertzer, who also designed two metal sculptures fabricated by Southern Blowpipe, including a bell tower at the entrance to Chapel in the Oaks.

Hare, also a member of Wiregrass Electric, had to dig into the Muscogee Creek history for his mural “First Farmers of the Wiregrass,” learning about their housing and tools. His larger mural on the back side of the altar wall features images that represent Dothan and the Wiregrass — agriculture, Fort Rucker, the railroad, sports, the National Peanut Festival and a modern downtown Dothan.

“This is kind of a love letter to Dothan from me,” Hare says. “It represents the history — the past, present and the future.”

Chapel in the Oaks is expected to be included as part of the Alabama Mural Trail, a statewide path that highlights murals in communities across the state, including public murals in Dothan and throughout the Wiregrass. “It really is a gallery,” Shertzer says.