On Wheaton's Downtown Plaza, reading the phrase is a two-wall exercise. A nearby mural spells “Wheaton”; the newer history mural adds “Your Hometown” in lettering that changes across time. The City says the two murals together spell “Wheaton Your Hometown.” That joined phrase offers one way into the America 250 project: a public history mural designed to work beside art already in the plaza.
The City of Wheaton scheduled its America 250 Mural Celebration for 11 a.m. at Downtown Plaza, near Main Street and Liberty Drive. Its calendar lists a 30-minute program, while the Daily Herald's Oct. 17 on-site account describes an hourlong artist talk and confirms the formal unveiling took place. The discussion gave attendees a chance to hear how Jeremy Botts and Jeffrey Swider-Peltz made the two-wall phrase and its local timeline legible.
The two murals sit near the pavilion used for the Wheaton French Market, at Main Street and Liberty Drive. The newer work covers a retaining wall beside the plaza. The Daily Herald reported that the existing “Wheaton” mural was created by Peru Dyer Jalea, known as Peru143, and that the new retaining-wall piece spells “Your Hometown.”
That arrangement makes the words part of the artwork's route. The phrase crosses separate walls, while the new mural's sequence moves from one historical period to another. Botts told the Daily Herald that the lettering shifts styles every 20 or 30 years, giving the mural another way to mark time. A visitor follows both the words and the changing forms across the painted surface.
The City describes the mural as a history of Wheaton from 1776 to the present, built with meaningful imagery and abstract typography. The Daily Herald reported that the work moves through history in chronological form, with the letter styles changing every 20 or 30 years. Together, the images and lettering turn the retaining wall into a local timeline for the national anniversary.
Some of the images tie that timeline to places and people visitors may recognize. The Daily Herald described references to Red Grange, the Grand Theater and the Cock Robin restaurant logo. The newspaper also reported that some geometric patterns were inspired by Ojibwe and Potawatomi cultural artifacts.
The lettering gives the timeline a second layer. The Daily Herald reported that at the Oct. 17 talk, Jeremy Botts described the first letter in “Your Hometown” as an early American fraktur from around the 1770s. A viewer might first recognize a name or building, then notice that the shape of a letter belongs to a different period. The words are not simply placed over the timeline; their style is part of it.
The City and Wheaton’s Fine and Cultural Arts Commission sought an artist to create a lasting mural about Wheaton’s history as part of the America 250 celebration. The City says the selected artists used meaningful imagery and abstract typography to build on Peru143’s earlier “Wheaton” mural. The finished pair connects a national anniversary with a community greeting and the city’s own story.
The City names Jeremy Botts and Jeffrey Swider-Peltz as the artists selected for the project; the Daily Herald describes them as an art professor and his former student. The newspaper reported that painting took about three months, slowed by heavy rain in June and hot weather in July, and that four college students also helped. The Oct. 17 public talk introduced the finished design rather than marking its creation.
The artists also had to solve a practical problem: keeping one visual sentence coherent across a very long wall. The Daily Herald reported that they developed the design in a shared digital file while Botts was on sabbatical in India. They broke the layout into sections, then used graphite tracing paper and freehand painting to place it outdoors. Their method joined remote planning with work on the plaza itself.
For people using the plaza, the joined phrase offers a simple starting point: read the older “Wheaton” mural with the new “Your Hometown” wall, then follow the images and letter styles through the local timeline. The Oct. 17 artist talk let visitors hear how those choices fit together. The completed work remains in place beside the market pavilion, where a city greeting and a history lesson share the same public space.
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