TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— The Vigo County History Center commissioned a local artist to recreate a famous mural from the Terre Haute House hotel.
The mural used to have its home in the Mayflower Room of the iconic Terre Haute House hotel. Now it has been digitally recreated by local award-winning artist Becky Hochhalter. Each framed recreation also features a piece of the original mural itself.
“Combining the generosity and vision of Greg Gibson, and Becky Hochhalter’s genius, artistic
skill to preserve the integrity of the original artist’s work …these two are responsible for the
masterful creation that not only brings back memories of the world-renowned Terre Haute
House and its Mayower Room, but allows buyers to actually own a piece of the history,”
says Vigo County History Center Executive Director Marla Flowers. “Becky’s ability to restore
the salvaged mural and include it in this piece is nothing short of amazing!”
The original Mayflower Room mural was done in 1936 by a famous Hungarian painter by the name of Miklos Gaspar and depicted the Mayflower ship landing and a meeting between settlers and Native Americans though the Vigo County History Center does acknowledge that the stereotypical representation is not accurate. Three additional large pieces of the mural are set to display in the future but the rest is being used in the recreations.
“As a muralist, having the opportunity to not only digitally recreate the Mayower Room mural,
but also to clean and preserve Miklos Gaspar’s original work was very meaningful to me,”
Hochhalter says. “As a member of the board of the Vigo County History Center, I am also
thrilled to have the ability to bring back a cherished piece of Terre Haute and Vigo County
history.”
You can purchase one of these recreations and all the proceeds from the sale will be donated back to the History Center. Each of the framed works will be one of a kind and limited. There are only 25 of them at the “Gold Level” for $499 and additional works are available at the “Silver Level” for $449 and “Bronze Level” for $399.
