The mural was painted over by CTA maintenance staff who mistook it for grafitti.
The mural was painted over by CTA maintenance staff who mistook it for grafitti.
A mural reading “Archie’s 4 Eva” on a wall below the CTA Red Line tracks behind Archie’s Cafe was recently painted over. Created in honor of the closing of Archie’s, the mural lasted just 10 days before Chicago Transit Authority graffiti busters covered it.
On the morning of Sep. 4, Roberta Schmatz, owner of Archie’s Cafe, opened the coffee house’s back door to find it had been covered, leaving only traces of the once vibrant art visible.
A CTA spokesperson said maintenance teams from the CTA had mistaken the mural for graffiti and painted over it. They wrote that although there were no specific orders to remove the mural, the wall was never officially registered so crew members believed it was unapproved artwork.
Schmatz said the removal of the mural came as a shock and disappointment to her, especially after she reached out to begin efforts to preserve it with Alderwoman Maria Hadden (49th).
“We certainly got some outreach from Roberta and other members of the community who emailed my office the Monday after [Archiepocalyse],” Hadden said. “‘Like ‘Hey, help us preserve the mural.’ So I even responded. I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’”
Archie’s Cafe officially closed its doors Aug. 31, after Loyola purchased the building which housed the cafe and announced plans to demolish it, The Phoenix previously reported. Schmatz said the cafe had thrived as a staple in the Loyola and Rogers Park communities for six years and she had been there even longer, providing shows and a space for people to gather and socialize.
The mural had been one last farewell gift, Schmatz said. Painted by Solomon, a local artist and good friend of Schmatz’s, the mural appeared on the second day of “Archiepocalypse,” a three-day celebration held to memorialize the cafe, The Phoenix reported.
“I had so much fun doing it,” Solomon said.
The mural became a crucial part of the celebration with attendees posing and bands playing in front of it. Schmatz said the mural was a focal point, and she viewed it as an homage to the cafe’s community building on the block.
Solomon said the end product wasn’t what really matters to him, the special part is the “journey”.
“Doing public art and giving it away for free is like, you do it mainly for the process and having fun because you accept the risk,” Solomon said. “It’s like Roberta kept saying, it was like a shooting star, like a fleeting beauty of Archie’s. It’s the same thing for graffiti. It’s like the fleeting beauty. You gotta catch it at the right time.”
Regarding repainting and registering the mural in the future, Solomon said he’s had his eyes on the wall for a while and still has a desire to add some color, describing it as a “brown alley” in need of “public art.”
“I’m still disappointed,” Schmatz said. “Coming and seeing it’s just this dull, you know, nothing, not remarkable, you know all that had gone on here and all the hard work in the community building I did. And now it’s just going to be nothing.”
Some Loyola students were upset about the mural being covered. Erin Chin, fourth-year at Loyola, said the cafe was important among many current and former Loyola students.
“I can definitely empathize with how heartfelt that must have been for the people who put work into that mural,” Chin said. “I know that it was kind of a staple place for a lot of people and a lot of alumni.”
Despite the removal of the mural, both Schmatz and Hadden said they’re interested in working with the CTA to ensure proper protocols are followed so another mural can serve to memorialize Archie’s Cafe.
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