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Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Mural returns to Victor bank
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
VICTOR — A historic mural that was removed from Victor’s Chelsea Savings Bank during remodeling has returned.
The mural, which depicts Victor during the early 1900s, was created for The Victorian Inn in the 1960s, according to local historian Delores Tibben.
When the Inn closed, Victor State Bank purchased the mural.
The painting hung on a wall in the bank lobby for years, and customers were used to seeing it. “People asked about it when it was taken down,” said Chelsea Savings Bank Assistant Vice President Logan D. Baburek.
“I wanted to put it up at the little museum or someplace,” said Curtis Brown, president and chief executive officer for Chelsea Savings Bank. But he didn’t really want to give it away, so he looked for a place to hang it in the bank.
“So we’ve been kicking [the idea] around a little bit and finally found an area in my office [in Victor] that would be big enough,” said Brown.
The canvas for the mural, which measures 17 feet by 6 1/2 feet, was imported from France, Tibben wrote in an article published in the May 1, 2024 issue of The Hometown Current.
Local painter Hollis Fish applied the canvas to the wall of the dining room in The Victorian Inn, and Fred “Skipper” Schlesselman, Van Hamme’s uncle, created the picture using pastel acrylics.
Schlesselman was a former professor of art at Drake University in Des Moines, the University of Northern Iowa and New York University, Tibben wrote.
Schlesselman painted the scene on the from an old postcard and from his memory of how Victor used to look, said Tibben. He added a man in an early “horseless carriage” and a puddle that is about the splash water on a lovely young lady who is holding her skirt to avoid getting it wet as she crosses the street.
The Inn
The Victorian Inn restaurant and gas station were built by Orrin and Doris Fetzer and Fetzer Enterprises at Exit 205 near Victor in 1965 when Interstate 80 brought more traffic to Iowa County, Tibben says.
Gene Van Hamme leased the restaurant, and Bud Gwin the gas station. The Fetzers later sold the restaurant to Van Hamme, Tibben wrote.
The Victorian Inn was elegant, says Tibben, decorated with velvet drapes and red, flocked wallpaper.
Foreign meals, such as the French dinner and the Hawaiian Luau, became specialties. The Inn was known for its salad bar and the best cinnamon rolls in Iowa.
It was often filled to capacity, Tibben wrote.
The Inn frequently provided live entertainment on weekends. Bruce Feller or Mary Helen McGrory played organ for sing-alongs. Verla Van Dee, Connie Kasal and Leonard and Donna Van Hamme entertained at the Inn.
Celebrities such as singer Don Williams, newscaster David Brinkley, singer Brenda Lee, game show host Bob Eubanks and Wayne King and his band, the Ramsey Louis Trio dined there, according to Tibben.
The younger brother of Johnny Cash, Tommy Cash, stopped at the Inn as did James McArthur, the Ambassador of Costa Rica, basketball coach Lute Olson and Conrad Johnson.
