CityView Magazine

36 | March /April 2019 A s a brand-new mural is being celebrated in down- town Fayetteville, a 30-year-old mural that's been hidden away for years has come back to light. Painted in the late 1980s, it's inside the former Prince Charles Hotel, which is being renovated into luxury apart- ments and commercial space for retailers and restaurants. The project is next to the baseball stadium being con- structed for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, a Minor League Baseball team affiliated with the Houston Astros. Remarkably, the mural has a baseball theme. It portrays the exterior of a baseball stadium on the day that Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a professional player. As it happened, that was on March 7, 1914, during a spring training game in Fayetteville. Seventy-five years later, artist Robert Britton imagined the scene outside the ballfield at the old Cape Fear Fair Grounds on Gillespie Street. The large mural gives a glimpse of the game being played before a crowd inside a stadium and shows people outside, lining up to buy tickets or peek inside. Around a corner, a couple of young women in cloche hats, pictured on the cover of this magazine, stroll next to a circus poster. Behind them, in an understandable bit of artistic license, both the Market House and the Prince Charles can be seen. (Built between 1923 and 1925, the Prince Charles wasn't around when Ruth hit that first professional homer.) Jordan Jones, one of the principals in the group that is redeveloping the Prince Charles, said the partners didn't know of the mural's existence when they bought the prop- erty. When it was discovered, they appreciated its baseball theme, given the stadium being built next door. As such, he said, they'd like to preserve the mural if that's possible. Jones said the commercial tenant expected to take that space may not want the mural. If not, he said, the owners will see if relocating the mural is feasible. "We're working through it right now," he said. Meanwhile, Jones is predicting the Prince Charles project will itself be a home run. The 59 apartments located there should be ready for tenants in April and pre-leasing is going well, he said. The first floor will be home to The Coffee Scene coffee shop and two restaurants that haven't yet been announced. Another restaurant and beverage provider is planned on the first floor of the hotel's parking garage. "It's going to be great," he said. Picturing Baseball in Fayetteville – Back in 1914 BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY F E A T U R E

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