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Washington Evening Journal
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Mural at Maasdam Barns to be dedicated Friday
FAIRFIELD – A local artist has just put the finishing touches on a 32-foot-wide mural at Maasdam Barns in Fairfield.
Katlynne Hummell Underhill of Coralville was commissioned to paint the mural, a colorful depiction of the farm as it existed roughly a century ago during the last generation of farmers to use horses. It depicts a pair of horses pulling a man riding a disc plow. In the background are two of the famous barns at Maasdam Barns, along with a horse pulling a wagon carrying a woman and a couple of children. The mailbox indicates that the farm belongs to Glenn and June Gorman.
The mural consists of eight panels, each 4-by-8 feet. Members of the Maasdam Barns Historic Preservation Committee installed the panels the weekend of Nov. 4-5, and Hummell came out a few days later to paint over the bolts that hold up the panels. A black frame was then added, and now the committee is ready to show off its new mural to the public.
The new mural will be dedicated at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17. Cookies and hot chocolate will be served.
Tony Webb, president of the Maasdam Barns Historic Preservation Committee, said the committee had been talking about adding a mural as a way to brighten the scenery at the barns.
“Everything is so white,” Webb said. “When the Eldon mural went up, that got us visiting about it.”
Hummell Underhill painted the 20-by-30 foot mural in Eldon that reads “Welcome to Eldon – Home of the American Gothic House,” which was finished in 2021. The Maasdam Barns committee members wondered if Hummell Underhill could put her talents to work crafting a farm scene for them. Webb came across another mural in Indianola with a horse-drawn theme that he liked. The committee met with Hummell Underhill to talk about some of the features they’d like to incorporate into this new mural.
“It started out with a landscape of horses working the farm, and it grew from there,” Hummell Underhill said.
Hummell Underhill said she incorporates both hand drawing and computers to create her murals. For this one, she started with a hand-drawn pencil sketch, then created a digital image and made further alterations to it with Photoshop. To transfer her creation, Hummell Underhill used a projector to place her drawing over the panels, which allowed her to paint exactly what she had drawn on the computer. The whole process took about a month and a half. Hummell Underhill finished the job by putting a couple of coats of varnish on to protect the mural from the elements. She said the paint is guaranteed to last 15-20 years.
Webb said the committee wanted to pay homage to the Gorman family, who lived at the farm for many years after the Maasdams, and that’s why their name was put on the mailbox in the mural. Ownership of the farm eventually passed to the Gormans’ daughter Mary Helen Leathers and her husband, Ralph Leathers, in 1973. In 2005, the Maasdam Barns Preservation Committee was formed to oversee restoration and development of the farmstead.
The mural includes the country’s national bird, the American bald eagle, as well as the official state bird of Iowa, the goldfinch. It also contains Black-eyed Susans, and tulips as a nod to the Maasdam family’s Dutch heritage.
The committee didn’t want to place the mural on any of the old barns, so instead chose the newer warehouse on the west edge of the property. The mural is on the building’s north side, making it visible to patients at the Jefferson County Health Center and users of the Fairfield Loop Trail. Webb said the committee hopes to install a road near the mural so that residents can drive by for a close-up look.
Funding for the project came from the City of Fairfield’s Local Option Sales Tax, a grant from the Fairfield Cultural Alliance, a grant from the Greater Jefferson County Foundation, and money from the Maasdam Barns Historic Preservation Committee.
The property is known as Maasdam Barns because the Maasdams were the ones who made it famous. Jacob G. Maasdam and business partner Edward G. Wheeler sold purebred Scotch Shorthorn Cattle, and Maasdam also built what are known as the mare and stallion barns.
The farm would gain recognition in 1919 when Maasdam’s American-bred Percheron mare, Amoretta, was named World Champion at the International Livestock Show in Chicago. Maasdam and Wheeler formed a company called the Iowa Horse Importing Company, and in 1935 import a Belgian horse named “Louis d’Or,” reportedly the largest Belgian horse in the world.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
