'Vivian's Dream:' Reviving the Spirit of the Tremont Hotel

City Arts Nashua has been working toward realizing a plan to produce a major 40-by-35- foot full color historic mural on the wall behind the parking lot of TD Bank on the corner of Main and West Pearl, featuring the historic Tremont Hotel.

On Sunday, May 19, you are invited to stop by Nashua Historic Society, 5 Abbott Street, at 1:30 p.m., to help support this mural project by attending a historic talk, "To Wander and Wonder Along Historic West Pearl Street."

Tickets for Manoian's talk are $15 general admission; $10 for City Arts Nashua members, students and seniors.

This public art project, to be painted by Nashua mural artist Barbara Andrews, will bring a view of West Pearl Street in 1909 to a prominent 2013 downtown location. The West Pearl Street Mural will enhance downtown Nashua and offer residents, businesses, restaurant patrons, shoppers and visitors an historic public art experience.                                                                                  

A bit of history: West Pearl Street was the route of the stage coach line coming into Nashua and became a thriving business area in the 19th century. The street was home to many businesses started by Greek immigrants who originally came to Nashua to work in the mills.  Until hotels were built around Railroad Square, the Tremont Hotel featured in the mural was the “place to stay” in Nashua.  

You can contribute and be part of this tremendous art installation. Donations of any amount are welcome.

As a donor to the project, your name will be included on a bronze-tone plaque recognizing the donors and explaining the historical significance of the mural, mounted at eye level under the mural. Your name or your company will be listed in all event programs, on the CAN website and in any articles about the project.

The project was first visualized some years ago by two friends, Vivian Walker (the building is owned by the Walker Family Trust) and Meri Goyette.  Walker fostered a long-time desire to have a large mural on the wall of #38 Pearl after Goyette explained the historic significance of the area to her.  Andrews heard about “Vivian’s Dream” to have a historic mural on the family’s building, and wanted to see it come to life.

Andrews has painted 27 murals, including 15 small murals at the Boys and Girls Club of Nashua, six indoor murals for businesses ranging in size from 4-by-8 fee wide, up to  25-by-15 feet wide. She's painteda 20-by-8 foot outdoor historic mural of the Mill Yard on Darrell’s Music Hall, and a 75-by-40 foot decorative mural on a water tower in Pensacola, FL. 

The mission of City Arts Nashua is to promote arts and culture in the Greater Nashua area, to act as a catalyst to help artists and arts organizations thrive, and to facilitate greater synergy among artists and arts organizations, business, government and the general public.  City Arts Nashua wants simply to increase arts awareness, and to build an expanded audience as a means to greater economic prosperity.  It fosters cooperation, collaboration and coordination among the artistic and cultural community, including visual arts, theater arts, musicians, and writers.

If you can't attend Sunday's talk but would like to contribute, a printable contribution form is uploaded with this story.