Apr 25, 2016 1 min read

When shoppers arrive May 12 for the opening of the Main Street Farmers’ Market, they won’t have to worry much about the weather. They’ll be under the cover of the new pavilion and won’t have to rush between raindrops.

Those shoppers will also get a chance to see a really special work of art: a 30-foot-long mosaic mural created by Washington Junior High eighth-graders and Pittsburgh artist Laura Jean McLaughlin.

The mural depicting scenes from the city’s past has been on display in the high school, out of view of most citizens. But through a grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, it will be moved to a wall of the historic Strean Building on South Main Street, beside where the market is held every Thursday afternoon from May through October. Its permanent display will be an expression of pride in both the city’s history and in the students who created the mural.