Mural at Addison & Avondale

Mural at Addison & Avondale Mural at Addison & Avondale Completed in June 2012 with the help of artist Rafael Lopez and over 200 volunteers, this mural represents community engagement!

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05/17/2024

Many thanks to staff at 30th Ward Alderwoman Ruth Cruz's office for having the grass mowed along Avondale near the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden. We asked, and it was done!

Send a message to learn more

What a difference five volunteers and one hour can make!  We don't have before and after photos, but we know you'll reco...
05/09/2024

What a difference five volunteers and one hour can make! We don't have before and after photos, but we know you'll recognize the difference in the garden the next time you walk or drive. We pruned, w**ded, picked up trash, and cleaned up the graffitti.

Many thanks to first time volunteer and Avondale Neighborhood Association member Sean, returning volunteer and gardening affecionado Charles, and hard-working, energized Katy from 30th Ward Alderwoman Ruth Cruz's office...and of course, Amy and Victoria, mural garden organizers who haven't missed a work-day in 10 years!

Please help us increase interest in the Mural Garden by visiting, liking, following or adding a comment on this page.

Thank you for your support and interest....we hope to see you at our mid-summer work day in July or August, around the neighborhood....and/or on this page!

05/07/2024

Friends and Neighbors of the Mural Garden,

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, May 8, at 4:00 pm at the corner of Addison & Avondale! To beautify and get the garden ready for this growing season, we will w**d, pick up trash, trim the foliage, and dead-head the daffodils. All tools and garden gloves will be provided. No gardening experience required; school service hours are available for students, too. Hope to see you!

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Yesterday, the Mural Garden and adjacent green space got some much-needed tree trimming and cleanup. Many thanks to Neig...
09/11/2023

Yesterday, the Mural Garden and adjacent green space got some much-needed tree trimming and cleanup. Many thanks to NeighborSpace Neighbor-Space and Christy Webber for making it happen!

Many thanks to Bruno, Lin, Liah, Kostas, Elon, Mitch, Amy and VIctoria (the photographer), our hard working group of nei...
07/19/2023

Many thanks to Bruno, Lin, Liah, Kostas, Elon, Mitch, Amy and VIctoria (the photographer), our hard working group of neighbors who volunteered on Monday to clean up the Mural Garden and engraved brick walk-way. We hope you'll join us in the fall (date TBD). Enjoy the rest of your summer!

07/16/2023

Hello Friends and Neighbors!

It's early summer and that means it is time for our third work-day of the growing season at the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden. Please join us Monday, July 17, at 4 pm (or Tuesday at 4 pm if the weather doesn't cooperate on Monday) for an hour+ to w**d, prune, and "spruce" up the garden and the corner of Addison & Avondale!

We'll provide the tools, cold water, and a new pair of garden gloves to all who come out and help. No gardening experience needed; school service hours available.

We would also like to point out, (in the event you didn't notice) that the Garden Committee recently facilitated the repair of the Raphael Lopez mural on the north side of Addison. The Addison & Avondale Mural Garden Committee, along with the Athletic Field Advisory Council (AFAC) and another organization provided the funding to repair the mural and we are very pleased with the results.

Please join us on Monday to continue our efforts to maintain and beautify the public spaces in our community.

10/26/2022

Hello friends of the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden! We hope you'll join us for the final garden work day of the 2022 growing season from 4-5 pm on Thursday, October 27th.

Join us as we w**d, prune, pick up trash, and help beautify the corner of Addison and Avondale and get our garden ready for winter. All volunteers will receive a brand new pair of garden work gloves.

We look forward to seeing you! Everyone is welcome...no gardening experience required.

Hey, neighbors, check this out: Rafael López, the artist who created our beautiful mural at Addison and Avondale, was co...
08/15/2022

Hey, neighbors, check this out: Rafael López, the artist who created our beautiful mural at Addison and Avondale, was commissioned by the USPS to create artwork for some new stamps!

Artist Rafael López used his upbringing in Mexico City for inspiration. It took two years of development before the set launched, and each stamp will carry on a cultural legacy forever.

07/28/2022

OUR garden is looking lovely again thanks to the hard work last night of Al and Maddie Smith, Elvira and Eddie from Representative Andrade's office, and Amy Srubas and Victoria Duran.

Please help keep the garden and the corner of Addison & Avondale (and everywhere in our community) clean and welcoming. Pick up trash when you see it, or pull w**ds when you walk by. It takes a COMMUNITY!

07/25/2022

Hello, friends of the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden!

We hope you've been enjoying the summer and have some time this evening to spend at the garden with us. We'll be doing our summer clean up from 6-7 pm TODAY, Monday, July 25th. If it rains, we'll meet on Wednesday, July 27th at 6 pm

We will have cold water for all and will provide gardening tools and a new pair of garden gloves to all who come out to w**d, prune, pick up trash, and help beautify the corner of Addison and Avondale.

We look forward to seeing you! Everyone is welcome...no gardening experience required.

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05/03/2022

UPDATE: OUR WORKDAY WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, AT 3:30 PM. JOIN US!

Happy Spring, Friends of the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden!

It's that time of the year! The daffodils are in bloom and our garden needs tending. Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, May 3rd at 3:30 pm for our first garden work day of the season. If it rains, we'll meet on Wednesday, May 4th at 3:30 pm.

We will provide the tools and a new pair of garden gloves to all who come out to w**d, prune, pick up trash, and help beautify the corner of Addison and Avondale.

We look forward to seeing you! Everyone is welcome...no gardening experience required.

10/12/2021

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,

Please come to the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden this Tuesday, Oct 12th, at 4 pm to help prepare the Mural Garden for the winter. We'll have all the tools you need and free garden gloves and water for all volunteers. Just an hour of your time with neighbors will help beautify the corner and get our community garden ready for the next season.

This will be our last work-day of 2021, so please join us and make some new friends and support your community. No gardening experience necessary.

Hope to see you!

08/02/2021

Hey, neighbors. Tomorrow, August 3, is going to be a perfect day for gardening. Please join us at the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden for our summer work-day! We'll be w**ding, pruning and adding some new plants.

There will be bottled water and gardening gloves for all who help out! Hope to see you there at 4:00 pm!

05/07/2021
04/26/2021

Hey, neighbors, it's that time of the year! Please join us Tuesday, April 27th at 4:00 pm for our first garden work day of the season.

We will provide the tools and a new pair of garden gloves (and a mask, if you need one) to all who come out to w**d, prune, pick up trash and help beautify the corner of Addison and Avondale. We're also happy to sign community service forms for students who have them.

We look forward to seeing you! The weather should be beautiful, and everyone is welcome...no gardening experience required.

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A message and memoir from the Belmont Snack Shop.
10/23/2020

A message and memoir from the Belmont Snack Shop.

Farewell...

It is with a heavy heart that I write this today...As many of you know the Snack Shop is currently closed due to a fire that destroyed the entire property. After a lot of thought and consideration and looking at every angle possible it is apparent to all of us at the Snack Shop that rebuilding and attempting to bring Belmont Snack Shop back to the community is not in the stars. But before we say goodbye lets take a stroll down memory lane and give you some history of the "Snack Shop" on Belmont & Kimball...

"I have been coming here since I was a kid"

This is something I have heard many times over from customers who frequent Belmont Snack Shop, many of our customers have been coming here since they were children and continued the tradition with their children when they became adults. I too am one of those customers who have been coming to the Snack Shop since I was a kid... I have heard stories of the restaurant at 3407 W Belmont Ave being around in the 60's and 70's but I don’t have any stories or knowledge of that but I do know it was around in the 80's. From my limited knowledge a man by the name of Danny McCullom owned the property on Belmont. I was told this was his first restaurant that he opened along with his late wife and this restaurant held special meaning to him as he began to establish more restaurants and properties. People managed the restaurant which at that time was called K&S Snack Shop. Two of those people who managed the restaurant in the early 90's was a Dion and Loria Richards. At some point in the mid 90's looking to move away from ownership of some of these restaurants Mr. McCullom made the decision to offer ownership of K&S Snack Shop to Dion & Loria. At this point K&S Snack Shop became D&L Snack Shop and with Dion & Loria being my parents I came into the picture. At that time as a young kid growing up in the neighborhood I can honestly say that even though my parents owned this restaurant I rarely ever stepped foot in there unless I was waiting for my bus to go to Jahn Elementary. I do remember the people who frequented D&L Snack Shop... I remember Eva sitting in her corner stool having coffee and gossiping... I remember the morning shift waitress Lee always sneaking me candy as if I was 5 years old but I took it none the less lol. I remember Francis (RIP) & Karen (RIP) working the graveyard shift slinging out skirt steak breakfast specials like they were water. Francis cussing out the drunk men who came in there and watching them laugh in enjoyment because thats exactly what they wanted to happen and she obliged. I remember dear old Shirley (RIP) working the afternoon shift not even for the money but just to get out of the house. I remember Mary... Hillbilly Mary is what we called her, I remember being a child watching in amazement as I argued with this grown women who thought Pro Wrestling was real but it didn't matter cause she enjoyed it and I enjoyed the arguments. I remember walking into that restaurant 2 hours after my daughter was born, exhausted hungry and eating a Southern Special as my Mom asked me a 1000 questions about her first Granddaughter.

The memories flood me as I write this... Dion & Loria owned the Snack Shop until 2010. At this point I was working the restaurant with my parents along with Paul Schiller the current owner of the Belmont Snack Shop. Around that time they gave up the Snack Shop and the owners of the property asked Paul & I if we were interested in taking over. We invested every dime we had and took over this business at what I considered to be one of it's lowest points. Sales were down and people were losing their love of the Snack Shop so Paul & I set out to change that. At that point it was a struggle... I remember every day waking up and going downstairs to the restaurant as I was the tenant at 3407 W Belmont since 2004. I remember going downstairs and taking what little bit of money we earned the day before and buying stock and doing it again and again each day until we had enough money to buy a couple days worth of stock and then finally getting to the point where we had enough to buy stock 2 times a week and so on... We built the Snack Shop up slowly and it was not easy... But we didn’t do it alone we did it with the help of many people… When we started our management in 2010 it was only Paul, Myself, Carl & Karen. Over the years Carl & Karen have left us for a better place and I truly believe that had they still been around they would have been with Paul & I up until the day of the fire. A few weeks after taking over, Linda came into the picture and she too has passed but was missed up until the the end… Many of my own young cousins referred to the restaurant as “Linda’s Place”. We lost many other employees along the way like C.J, Janet, etc and without any of them the restaurant would not have been the same. My memory isn’t as great as it use to be so please bare with me if I cannot acknowledge all the staff we have had over the decade but we would like to say thank you to LeeAnn, Vickie, Kathy, Stephanie, Haley, Deysi, Isabella, Janis, Andrea, Julio, Chris, Angelo and anyone else whose name escapes me at the moment… You all served the community of Avondale/Logan Square perfectly and I thank you for being part of the family. A special thank you goes out to the Judy, Todd & Oliver who were with us to the end… COVID had such an affect on everyone and the business. You all were there the last couple months watching the struggle and so many times picking me up when things seemed so dire. Paul & I thank you all for being there for us!

Finally on behalf of everyone here at the Snack Shop I say thank you to the community cause without you we would have been a failed business… one of many in Chicago, but you all and your support made us into a success and we are forever grateful… Our former cook Carl who is no longer with us for so many years when leaving his shift he would walk pass my office and look in and say everyday to me “Okay Bubba, I’ll see ya next time”… So please check out our link make a donation if you can, it would be greatly appreciated… On that note I leave you all by saying…

“Okay people, I’ll see ya next time”

Nelson A. Rodriguez

10/13/2020

Neighbors!

Come help out at our FINAL 2020 Garden Work Day, Wednesday, October 14 at 3:30 pm. You'll get your pick of a new pair of garden work gloves to use and take home! We'll also have all the tools you need to prune, w**d, and clean-up the Mural Garden and get it ready for winter.

Please wear a face-covering and practice social distancing at the site. We'll have hand-sanitizer, garden tools, and plenty of brand new garden gloves for you to use.

In the event of significant rain (though not predicted), please check your email or the page for updates.

We look forward to seeing you Wednesday afternoon!

Thank-you to Sarah and Carolyn for answering our call for help.  Scrubbing paint off a mural is hard work.  If anyone el...
10/04/2020

Thank-you to Sarah and Carolyn for answering our call for help. Scrubbing paint off a mural is hard work. If anyone else can lend a hand, please let us know. We can lend you the tools. From athleticfieldpark.com

HELP!   Our Rafael Lopez mural was tagged.  A volunteer has been doing his best to remove the tag.  He ran out of his sp...
10/03/2020

HELP! Our Rafael Lopez mural was tagged. A volunteer has been doing his best to remove the tag. He ran out of his spray paint graffitti removal. Can anyone else help finish the job? Let’s honor Hispanic Heritage Month by helping maintain our community artwork.

You’ll need a scrub bush, some graffiti remover, a bucket of water, about 45 minutes, and a kind heart! Please go whenever you can! Thanks to Athletic Field Park Advisory Council for their efforts thus far.

Yesterday, the rain stopped and the sun came out....and so did a PHENOMENAL group of mask-wearing volunteers!  HUGE than...
08/05/2020

Yesterday, the rain stopped and the sun came out....and so did a PHENOMENAL group of mask-wearing volunteers!

HUGE thanks to the amazing Smith family (Alisa, Art, Madeline & Aiden), first time garden volunteer Nick from Eddy Street, and State Rep. Jaimie Andrade and his great staffers Elvira and Eddy. Together with Mural Garden Committee Members Amy & Victoria, we trimmed, pruned, raked, swept, pulled w**ds. picked up trash, and ultimately filled 6 huge 30 gallon lawn/leaf bags!

If you couldn't make it on Tuesday, we hope you'll help out in the fall or at another community garden or park beautification/clean-up project this summer and fall. It takes everyone doing their part to maintain and enhance our neighborhood and public spaces to ensure they look their best!

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08/03/2020

Hello Neighbors,

We’re offering FREE garden gloves in exchange for your help at the Addison & Avondale Mural Garden on Tuesday, August 4th from 9 - 10 am.

Please join us for our first group garden work-day of 2020 and you'll get your pick of a new pair of garden work gloves to use and take home! We'll also have all the tools you need to prune, w**d, and clean-up the Mural Garden. We've worked at the garden independently several times since Spring, but the garden needs more than the two of us can accomplish. We'd love for you to join us in helping further beautify this corner of our neighborhood.

Please wear a face-covering and practice social distancing at the site. We'll have hand-sanitizer, garden tools, and plenty of brand new garden gloves for you to use! In the event of significant rain that morning, please check your email or the page for updates.

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday!

Victoria Duran and Amy Srubas
Addison & Avondale Mural Garden Committee

NOT your ordinary silent auction!! First ever IRVING PARK inspired artwork donated by your creative neighbors. SAVE $$ a...
02/01/2020

NOT your ordinary silent auction!! First ever IRVING PARK inspired artwork donated by your creative neighbors. SAVE $$ and buy your ticket today athleticfieldpark.com

PLEASE SHARE & comment below To make sure the word gets out to all teens!!
12/02/2019

PLEASE SHARE & comment below To make sure the word gets out to all teens!!

10/17/2019

Happy fall season, neighbors!

Please join us for our final Addison & Avondale Mural Garden workday of the season on Friday, October 18th at 4:00 pm. This last gathering of volunteers is vital to ensure the garden will look and do well through the winter and be at its best in 2020. Our rain/inclement weather date is Tuesday, October 22 at 4:00 pm because, well, we're in Chicago and anything is possible.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

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08/23/2019
Thanks to Bryan Coble for helping sweep and pick up trash at our murals today.  Unfortunately, we had a water issue and ...
08/07/2019

Thanks to Bryan Coble for helping sweep and pick up trash at our murals today. Unfortunately, we had a water issue and couldn’t power wash. We will try again soon. Here’s one before and after. Here’s a before an after photo of what happens when a few people give an hour to their community.

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Address

Addison & Avondale
Chicago, IL
60618

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