Dixon’s Bike Shop's Iconic Mural Painted Over After 40 Years In Park Slope

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A mural advertising Dixon's Bike Shop on Union Street in Park Slope has been painted white by St. Francis Xavier school.

While St. Francis Xavier sits a block over on President Street, it still owns the wall facing Union Street, where the iconic mural has been painted for over 40 years.

With no warning, the mural was painted white last Wednesday, May 31, and will be replaced by an advertisement for the school, according to David Dixon, the owner of Dixon's Bike Shop.

Dixon said he had no advance warning.

"I just came to work and people in the neighborhood just attacked me like, 'your wall, your wall, your wall!'" he told Patch in a phone interview Thursday.

(Patch first heard news about the wall through BKLYNER.)

Dixon said the mural dates back over 40 years to a deal his dad struck with the school.

"We would pass it, walk up and down the block, and the wall was always graffiti'ed up," Dixon remembers. "It was an eyesore on the neighborhood. So my dad went to the principal at the time and said to her, 'If I put a mural up on this wall, I’ll stop the kids from graffitiing it. I'll monitor it and keep it clean."

The wall became a fixture on the busy neighborhood block.

"Dixon’s has been here 50 years," Dixon said. "The neighborhood knows us, and word of mouth still is the best advertisement. It’s just something that the community built up and always loved, just seeing it there."

He added: "People have moved out of Park Slope and moved back 40 years later and said, 'The wall is still here!' and taken pictures of it."

And Dixon admitted he was sad to see it go.

"In a way, yeah," he said. "Seeing it for so long and not seeing it any more, I’m a little bit upset about it. But I can't fight with them about the wall. It’s their wall."

When Patch called St. Francis Xavier for comment, a woman who answered the phone said, "We have no comment about that" and hung up before we could ask anything else.

UPDATE: After this story was published, a school spokeswoman reached out to Patch to give the school's side of the story.

Carolyn Erstad told Patch on Friday that the wall "was falling apart. The paint was peeling off, there were loose bricks, the bricks were exposed. And the school were getting complaints."

Erstad said she "felt bad" for people "who thought this was part of the community."

"The school thought that they were doing the right thing by dealing with this, which could maybe be posing a danger to the community."

She also said that Dixon's was notified on May 20 that their mural would be coming down.

"The school feels bad if this is a disappointment to the community," Estrad said. "I don’t think they foresaw that. They just thought this was the responsible thing."

And what will go in its place? That's still TBD.

"They are going to paint something on the wall," Estrad said. "They’re hoping to get the students of the school involved in the painting of it."

Estrad also sent along some photos of the wall before it was painted over:

Photo via Google Streetview