On a wall of a building at 19 N. Market St., Elizabethtown, the past comes to life. The "Donegal to Donegal" mural, originally painted in 2002 by Wayne Fettro, depicts the journey of the Scots-Irish from County Donegal, Ireland, to Donegal Township in Elizabethtown. Over the years, the once-vibrant colors of the mural faded and the paint began to peel. Understanding the mural's importance, Elizabethtown Preservation Associates spearheaded a restoration project with funding provided by community donations. The newly restored artwork was unveiled at a ribbon cutting in late September.

Local artist Nancy Landis, a former director of the Winters Heritage House Museum, directed the restoration work with guidance from Susan Wheelersburg, a retired art teacher, and Cecile Madonna, who is a graphic designer, a mural artist and the owner of Lola Love Letter. Fettro, who has retired from mural painting, served as an adviser on the project.

"We started with just trying to get the paint off the wall," Landis said of the restoration project that began in March and was completed over the summer. "We probably spent a month trying to remove it." Landis had a goal of restoring the original colors of the mural while also adding elements to the design, including more interactions among people.

"We wanted to show what people were doing in that day and age," she said, explaining that the Winters Heritage House Museum uses the mural for third-grade educational walking tours. "Wayne originally painted the mural with a different purpose in mind. We had a chance to add some more insight into what life was like in Ireland and Colonial America at the time."

Landis also included design elements such as a letter from a local family to relatives back in Ireland, urging them to come to America and join them. The letter was mentioned on the walking tour but the new design ensures that spectators who are not part of the tour can still understand what's happening in the mural.

To complete the restoration, Landis and her team visited Chroma Acrylics in Lititz for advice. The business ended up donating almost all of the paint for the project.

As she worked on the restoration, Landis was excited to share more about the area's history.

"One thing that's really cool about what we've uncovered is when you look at the maps that are on the mural, you'll see that there are similar names in Ireland as there are to this area," she shared. "I think a large part of that reasoning is if you come from Donegal, Ireland, it's not a trip many people could afford to make back in the day, and they probably left a lot of family behind, hoping they would see each other again one day. If they called this place Donegal, it was like they were saying, 'Come here. We're here.' It was like a GPS, like a beacon calling them here so they could find each other again."

Landis invites people to check out the mural as well as new educational resources and interactive activities being developed at the Winters Heritage House Museum. Grant money recently received from the Library of Congress' Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University, will allow the museum to invest in more user-friendly technology to create an interactive photo experience. Grant funds will also be used to develop educational programs and workshops and improve the museum's website to provide additional educational activities, games and resources.

"Our goal is to provide residents, visitors, teachers and students a look into the growth and development of Elizabethtown through images, newspaper articles, maps, songs, books and more held by the Library of Congress," said museum director Teresa St. Angelo. "With this funding, we will be able to expand the educational programs currently offered, and by combining the Library of Congress collection with the artifacts and documents held at the Winters Heritage House Museum, our staff will develop lesson plans and educational resources that connect and compare the history of Elizabethtown with that of the United States and other countries. We will be able to provide teachers from all over with the tools to use primary sources to share their own town's history with their students."

The "Donegal to Donegal" mural is the first restoration of several other updates planned on murals in Elizabethtown. The Winters Heritage House offers a "Talking Murals" virtual exhibit at http://www.elizabethtownhistory.org by clicking on "Education" and then "Virtual Exhibits." Appointments for in-person tours of the murals may be arranged by calling the museum at 717-367-4672.