Graffiti Wall and Memorial

The graffiti wall on SW 34 Street here in Gainesville wasn't always such; originally, it was a stark white wall that would periodically suffer graffiti and then get a whitewash. Finally, with the other "graffiti wall" on SW 13 Street at the Archer Road intersection getting a mural painting commissioned for it, authorities finally gave in to the idea of there being at least one place in town for folks to vent out their feelings in paint. The only rules were: no profanity (at least in English) and no hate language. And no offense taken if someone else paints over your message the very next day!

In August 1990, Gainesville was rocked severely when a bitter, violent convict from Louisiana drifted into the area and decided to kill people at random as "payback" for his years of confinement. The result was the Gainesville student murders, which claimed five lives in the span of less than a week. That murderer, whose name does not bear mentioning, has since been tried, convicted, and executed for the crimes. A few weeks after the murders in 1990, a couple of people took it upon themselves to paint a memorial for the slain students on the graffiti wall. And ever since then, for over nineteen years, this one section has been preserved and maintained. Also, in the street median facing the wall, is an official memorial, with five trees each representing a slain student.

Here are some photos of the wall in general, the painted memorial, and the official "trees" memorial.