Just in time for Peanut Festival: mural depicts historic sites in Plains

Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, September 21, 2016

By JONI WOOLF
www.americustimesrecorder.com

PLAINS — There she stood on the scaffolding, putting the finishing touches on a colorful and historic view of downtown Plains, Georgia. Linda Adams, well-known throughout the area for her design interpretations of historic sites and buildings — as well as for her writing — was 10 feet above the sidewalk, adding final details to a new mural that will greet visitors and locals when the Plains Peanut Festival opens with much fanfare on Sept. 24.
Quaint, unchanged and unchanging, downtown Plains welcomes the world during the Festival days, and the new mural proves that the people of Plains are, again, up to the task. Funded by Plains Better Home Town and Plains Pharmacy, the mural boasts renderings of familiar sites: President Carter’s boyhood home in Archery; the former Plains High School that he and Rosalynn Carter attended; Maranatha Baptist Church, where the former president often teaches Sunday School; Billy Carter’s Service Station; the seal of the President of the United States; the National Park Service’s logo; the Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign Headquarters; and a new Peanut Festival logo that Adams created for the mural. Painted on the wall of Plains Pharmacy, the mural is in the line of vision of any and all who will be in Plains during the Festival — those who are waiting in line for awards after the morning races, those enjoying shopping up and down Main Street, and those who arrive by train to attend the day’s activities.
Adams started on the mural the last week in August. She expects to finish by the weekend of Sept. 16. She has worked fast. She learned early to move quickly and get the job done. After graduating from the University of Florida in Gainesville, she became the first interior designer to work in an architectural office in Tampa. She moved on to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, a prominent architectural firm in Chicago and expanded her boundaries. Having lived in many parts of the country, she and her husband researched this area, and settled in Schley County several years ago, buying the first country home that they were shown.
Adams is a prolific designer and painter, having painted furniture as well as pictures; she also has designed and reproduced greeting and correspondence cards. Her work is deceptively simple: look closely and you will find her careful attention to detail in every representation.
When you go to Plains for the Festival — or any other occasion — park the car and walk over to the drug store. Study the mural carefully, noting the care and attention given to each image — to the shape, scale, color. Know that an artist has been at work here and that she enjoyed every minute of it.