Naperville Art: A City in Transit

On the southwest corner of the Washington Street and Chicago Avenue intersection is a large mural called “A City in Transit.” Celebrating our city’s “evolution of travel.” it was painted in 1998 by Hector Duarte and Mariah de Forest, two prolific Chicago muralists from the Taller Mesitzarte workshop and gallery.

Folks don’t travel on the DuPage River as much as over it, so a couple of bridges are illustrated. There’s also bit of the Old Plank Road which was originally a Native American trail and now is Ogden Avenue/Route 34.

1865 wooden bridge at Washington Street with 1856 stone bridge on Main Street beyond

Because of investments in the Plank Road, Naperville first refused a railroad before  eventually agreeing. In the mural, the Chicago-to-Denver Zephyr is shown waiting at the station.

Many of the buildings sport signs to help identify them. The Pre-Emption House is one and the Naperville Creamery is another.

Walter Fredenhagen started making Frozen Gold ice cream in the 1930s. With partner Earl Prince, he launched Prince Castle ice cream shops, like the one in the mural, which became the Cock Robin ice cream chain. Fredenhagen Park is now where Naperville’s Cock Robin was located, just steps away on Washington Street.

Other signs name the myriad of garages, gas stations and motor companies that used to be downtown, although that may seem strange to us today. At one time, Jimmy’s Grill was one of several gas stations and there were five different car dealers in the middle of town. Clyde Netzley opened his garage in the 1920s and later operated a Chrysler dealership just across the street from this mural where the River Square shopping center currently is.

Painted high on the wall is the Lima Lima Flight Team whose yellow T-34s were once a common sight for flyovers during parades and other occasions. The club was organized in 1975 by some folks out at the Naper Aero Club whose FAA designator, LL-10, gives them their name. Many of the original Lima Lima pilots have retired or moved away, but the team is still active and flies in airshows across the country.

Naperville Art: Volunteers Welcome

Other cities might have a “Welcome to —” sign at the city limits with service club logos. Naperville has a mural on Washington Street at Van Buren Avenue. The title has two meanings: A welcome from the city’s clubs and a declaration that Naperville loves its volunteers.

The piece by Ernest Claycomb and Jennifer Richmond is actually two installations: the originals at ground level and enlargements at the top of the wall. The original paintings were scanned and enhanced with faux architectural elements before being printed on a vinyl banner. “Volunteers Welcome” illustrates seven service clubs with long histories in town.

Rotary
Paul P. Harris started a service club in 1905 in Chicago with rotating meeting sites. Naperville’s first Rotary club was founded in 1941, followed by Sunrise in 1991, Downtown/4:44 in 2007 and After Dark in 2017. Their Harmony Park was just installed at Rotary Hill.

Lions
Another Chicago businessman, Melvin Jones, started the club in 1917. Lion’s focus on vision care dates to a 1925 challenge from Helen Keller. Naperville’s chapter was founded in 1948 and they host the annual Turkey Trot 5K.

Exchange Club
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, their national project is the prevention of child abuse. Naperville’s group started in 1987. Exchange has hosted Ribfest since 1988, but 2019 is their last event at Knoch Park as they look for a new venue.

Jaycees
“JC” stands for the Junior Chamber of Commerce launched in 1920 for young men. Women were included in 1984 and the local chapter opened in 1964. Rick Motta and the Naperville Chamber organized the Last Fling in 1966 and passed it on to the Jaycees in 1981.

Kiwanis
Born in 1915, again in Detroit, the local club was founded in 1955. Kiwanis host an annual Pancake Festival, including a showcase of junior high bands and choirs.

Woman’s Club
Started as a literary meeting of local women in 1897, the Woman’s Club provided the first books for Nichols Library. In June, they will host their 60th annual Fine Arts Fair.

Junior Woman’s Club
Nationally, Juniors were created in 1932 to encourage service among younger women and Naperville’s chapter started in 1967. They launched Safety Town programs in 1978 with Officer Friendly George Pradel and facilitated Safety Town’s permanent home in 1996.

Naperville Art - Symbiotic Sojourn

The Promenade Building, where the Naperville Chamber is located, was developed by Dwight and Ruth Yackley of BBM, Inc. in 2003. They also commissioned a bronze relief to be installed in the courtyard: “Symbiotic Sojourn.”

“Symbiotic Sojourn” was created by Jeff Adams, an artist who works out of his own bronze-casting facility, inBronze, which is located in Oregon, Illinois. He started working in a local fine art foundry when he was just fifteen years old, but pursued a degree in civil engineering before returning to sculpture. Adams also created

“Two in a Million,” the bronzes of Walter and Grace Fredenhagen along the Riverwalk and he worked with Dick Locher’s design to cast the Joseph Naper statue on Mill Street.

The idea behind “Symbiotic Sojourn” is that we have a symbiotic relationship with our home planet that needs tending. Two children are found at the feet of the woman who is the Spirit of the Earth. The girl child is trying to hold the pieces of a fracturing Earth together. The boy child is pulling a wagon piled with cans and bottles, a throw-back

image of recycling’s humble beginning.

“Symbiotic Sojourn” was inspired by Barbara Ashley Sielaff, a local recycling activist from the 1970s. Sielaff was a district teacher who also wrote a column for the Naperville Sun called “You Can Save Our Earth.” She established the Naperville Area Recycling Center in 1973 and managed it for several years before moving out of state.

After the Center closed, residents appealed to the city who tapped the League of Women Voters, the Kiwanis and the Naperville Woman’s Club, among others, to fill the void. NARC started as a not-for-profit volunteer-run drop-off center. After a while, one homeowner’s association began collecting recyclables from the entire neighborhood to drop-off at NARC. More neighborhoods followed suit, and eventually, recycling collection became a city-wide program.

In warm weather, dining patrons can sit out in the courtyard and listen to water spilling from the hand of the Spirit of Earth into the pool below. Larger than life, “Symbiotic Sojourn” is beautiful to look at, but Adams, Sielaff and the Yackleys hope diners will also bring the recycling message home.

Naperville Art: Dough- and Sailor-Boys

In 1996, the Century Walk Foundation was created by some citizens inspired by history and art. Since then, they have been instrumental in renovating or installing 50 public works of art around town. In 2019, we’ll highlight a few of them, but you can explore them all on your own.

In the park outside the train station at 5th Avenue, two World War I statues salute each other. Both were designed by Ernest Moore Viquesney, but arrived in Naperville at different times more than 80 years apart.

Viquesney’s father was a French monuments artist and stone carver who settled in Indiana. He taught the trade to his son who spent part of his career working, among other places, at the National Cemetery at the Andersonville
Civil War Prison site, before returning to Indiana.

Following The Great War (who knew there would be a second?), communities all over the country were eager to commemorate their veterans. Viquesney designed the “The Spirit of the American Doughboy” in 1920 and it was quite popular, appearing as life-size monuments, statuettes and even as a lamp base!


Naperville American Legion Post 43 purchased one and dedicated it on May 31, 1926. At the statue’s base is seven large stones honoring the Naperville sons who lost their lives in the war. A more recent plaque nearby lists all local WWI veterans.

Viquesney then designed “The Spirit of the American Navy” in 1926, but interest in the war had waned and only seven were ever made.

The years were hard on our “Doughboy” and Post 43 decided to raise funds to repair him and replace his rifle. He was rededicated in May of 2003.

In 2012, an expert familiar with Naperville’s rededication notified Century Walk that a “Navy” statue had been located. The committee purchased it the spring of 2013 and dedicated it in October.

After burying two beloved wives and facing his own health issues, Viquesney asphyxiated himself in his garaged automobile at age 70. He left behind some beautiful art, including the Tivoli Theatre, which was restored and reopened in 2013, and “The Unveiling,” the family’s burial statue, both located in Spencer, Indiana.

Naperville Parks -- Pradel Park

In completing 2018’s look at the namesakes of Naperville’s parks, let’s look at Pradel Park, named for Arthur George Pradel, Naperville’s Mayor Emeritus who passed away in September. The park is east of Route 59 and north of 111th Street and features softball fields, a playground, trails and a picnic shelter.

Father Arthur, who immigrated from Germany as a teenager, and mother Virginia bought land at Ogden and Naper Boulevard, about where the Aldi’s is now, to build themselves a house. With toddler George, they moved from Chicago and added rooms on as the family grew. George attended the one-room Bronsonville
Elementary and then Naperville Central High. His first jobs were at local grocery stores and he played in the Municipal Band. A faith-based family, they often visited orphanages and George thought he’d like to run one to care for children when he grew up.

As a young teen, George hitchhiked with a cousin to Wyoming to be a rodeo rider. After seeing cowboys thrown to the ground, they decided it was not for them, but they had a grand adventure. After graduation, he and three friends signed up for the Marines under the “buddy plan.” George served at 29 Palms in California,mainly in the motor pool.

Once back home, sister Grace and her roommate set him up with a
friend named Pat. After an awkward first meeting and a date at the stock car races, George and Pat married exactly one year later in 1960. After a couple years, George, Pat and new son George settled in Naperville where they welcomed two more children, Carol and Gary. George was working in Chicago at a warehouse during the week and volunteering with the Oak Brook Terrace police department. Pat told him that if he like police work so much, why didn’t he just be a policeman? So he attended the law enforcement program at College of DuPage and applied for a job. Unfortunately, George didn’t meet the height requirement, but board member Harold Moser figured “if he’s tall enough for the Marines, he’s tall enough for us” and he got the job. Many of Naperville’s children remember him fondly as Officer Friendly.


Although he never did run an orphanage, as a juvenile officer, George frequently brought home youngsters who needed a home. He and Pat served as long-term foster parents to three teens. To support their growing family, George and Pat ran a little hotdog stand for a while called the PowWow. It was housed in the little building that was recently Lil’ J’s Bohemia until torn down with Russell’s Dry Cleaners last year. George also made donuts at Tasty Bakery before starting his shift with the police department and delivered flowers for Trudy’s since he knew the streets so well.

When retirement arrived, George figured he’d take it easy, maybe be a Walmart greeter, but some local folks asked him to run for mayor. Since he always found it hard to say “no,” George agreed — and won. Without a lot of experience, he worked hard to get up to speed as mayor of a booming city, but his best qualities were his people skills and his enthusiasm for Naperville. He was everywhere from charity functions to ribbon cuttings to council meetings and served an unprecedented five terms as mayor.

George loved Naperville and knew it well. Pradel Park is a fitting remembrance for a man who gave so much to his city and was happy to do so.