Supporters of Lackawanna Valley’s first home dedicated a new mural on Thursday. The rendering of people who once called the Tripp House home appeared through the windows.
Muralist Eric Bussart started the project in late fall, researching the Tripp family and completing the design for the side of the McCarthy Remick Flowers building, which neighbors the Tripp House.
Bussart called the project an “absolute dream.”
A lover of history and storytelling, the Scranton resident used a combination of house paint, acrylic paint and spray paint. From the wraparound porch, and from inside the home, visitors can receive a close look at the details in each face of Isaac Tripp and his descendants.
“So the images behind them, that sort of fade in and out of the Pennsylvania mountains, tell the story of their lives very subtly," Bussart said.
Tripp, the Lackawanna Valley’s first settler, purchased the land from Connecticut in 1771. Also on the mural are Ira and Rosanna Tripp, members of the fourth generation; Gertrude Tripp, an accomplished equestrian who died from injuries sustained in a horseback riding accident; and Native Americans, who lived on the land that settlers colonized.
On the North Main Avenue end of the expansive mural, Bussart painted the former fountain with the god Mercury on it. The flower shop stands at the former site of the home’s expansive gardens and fountain.
Michael Gilmartin, president of the board for the Society for the Preservation of the Tripp Family Homestead, and his wife, Nada, had approached Brian McCarthy, CEO of the floral company, with their idea for the mural.
McCarthy eagerly agreed to be part of the project.
“I just can't tell you how thrilled we are to be part of it,” he said during the dedication. “This has actually outdone any dream we could have had for how fabulous Eric made this look.”
The project received support from McCarthy, the Tripp House and a $3,000 grant from the Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area, in partnership with the National Park Service.
The Tripp House, 1011 N. Main Ave. in Scranton, is available for the public to rent for events. The home is significant to the entire region, Michael Gilmartin said.
“There's a great rapport between the Wyoming Valley and the Lackawanna Valley, because at one time, this was all under the jurisdiction of Luzerne County,” he said. “Isaac Tripp’s daughter Ruth married John Slocum of the Wyoming Valley, which created a bond between the two areas.”
