Mural Arts Program’s ‘Love Train’ Tours
Have you heard about the Love Letter Mural Project? Love Letter is a project by West Philadelphian native muralist Stephen Powers in conjunction with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
What is this Love Letter Train Tour?
Philadelphia’s official Love Letter Train Tour, leads visitors on an urban adventure on SEPTA’s Market/Frankford evaluated train line to view 50 rooftop murals along the Market Street corridor. The project collectively express a love letter from a guy to a girl, from an artist to his hometown, and from local residents to their cherished neighborhood.
Mural Arts guides will provide riders with detailed stories about the murals and lead guests oft the train to platforms to view murals closer.
Train riders will witness Mayor Nutter marrying a couple followed by a champagne and chocolate reception. You will also be treated to a private screening of the Love Letter documentary at SEPTA headquarters.
Rides are being offered on Saturdays and Sundays throughout February. To find out more and purchase tickets, please visit the Mural Arts Program site.
This is my neck of the woods so I’ve seen these walls and roofs for many years. I didn’t know there was a particular story behind the murals. I thought they were put up just to discourage people from tagging. Back in the day there were a couple of legendary taggers who had at least one tag on each block (sometimes every wall or roof was hit) stretching all the way from 63rd street to Bridge and Pratt (Frankford). Most of them are gone now. When I was a kid (“Kid” was his actual tag name… I forgot the other guys name) we used to call him Spiderman because they were always in places that seemed impossible to get to.
I like a few of the murals, but many of them seem to be fillers from my perspective of not knowing about the actual story. My top 3 picks are…
-57th-58th (I forget the name, but it’s black, brown, orange, and green… family themed it’s not on the site so maybe it’s unrelated.)
-46th street (Raconteur, Saboteur, Amateur…)
-50th (“See me like beautiful I see you”)
I just bought tickets for the special tour this Sunday that is 3 and a half hours long. The tour takes you through all 50 murals and their stories, a documentary screening of the project at the SEPTA headquarters and a reception after Mayor Nutter marries a couple on one of the platforms. Should be an interesting afternoon!
The regular 1.5 hour train ride tours are given all year round on Saturdays and Sundays.
That’s sure to be a head turning event for people in the area. Otherwise, I haven’t noticed any Saturday tours and I rarely go anywhere on a Sunday. But it’s good that Michael Nutter gets involved. I actually bumped into him at a block party last summer (Cedar Park).
Also, here’s a correction the green/orange mural is between 54th and 55th.