RENDERING — This rendering shows what Kyle Holbrook has in mind for the “Corps of Discovery: Lewis & Clark” mural he will be creating in Steubenville.RENDERING — This rendering shows what Kyle Holbrook has in mind for the “Corps of Discovery: Lewis & Clark” mural he will be creating in Steubenville. -- Contributed

STEUBENVILLE — Muralist Kyle Holbrook is hoping to weave a little of the fabric of the community into the newest addition to the Steubenville City of Murals collection: “Corps of Discovery: Lewis & Clark.”

Holbrook, a Pittsburgh resident, is hoping area residents will come out to help him paint the mural, which will be on the Community Action Council building in the alley opposite the Jefferson County Courthouse.

“I think it gives people more ownership,” Holbrook said during a Monday press conference in the Visitor Center at Historic Fort Steuben. “I always like to say every human makes a different mark, like fingerprints. So, kids will be able to come and even if a kid does a green hand post one day, from far away it’s going to look like grass. There are some opportunities for people to really be able to have a mark that they can remember — they can always come back and say hey, remember when we did that part? I think it adds another layer of, you know, buy in, another layer of participation and of ownership.”

Holbrook, who has painted murals in 49 states during the past 23 years, sees his Steubenville assignment as akin to divine intervention.

“I was here, riding my bike and looking at the murals for like two hours,” he said. “I don’t know if I saw all of them, but the first people I talked to that day were Jerry (Barilla) and Judy (Bratten.) It was one of those things in life that just happens.”

NEW MURAL — Muralist Kyle Holbrook, right, discusses plans for the city’s newest mural with Jerry Barilla and Judy Bratten of Historic Fort Steuben. during a Monday press conference. -- Linda Harris

In addition to his duties as mayor, Barilla serves as president of Historic Fort Steuben. Bratten is director of Historic Fort Steuben and the Steubenville Visitor Center, which is on the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail.

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis rode his boat on the Ohio River past Steubenville, en route from Pittsburgh to Indiana and his meet-up with William Clark and the start of their three-year exploration of the lands west of the Mississippi, better known as the Louisiana Purchase.

“Stewbenville,” Lewis wrote in his journal, “a small town situated on the Ohio in the state of Ohio about six miles above Charlestown in Virginia and 24 above Wheeling — a small, well-built thriving place has several respectable families residing in it, five years since it was a wilderness.”

The mural will celebrate the famed explorers as well as key players in the expedition, including Sacajawea and York, a skilled frontiersman and the first African American to cross the continent.

“This is why the Lewis and Clark Expedition speaks to all different populations,” Holbrook said. “It speaks to veterans, it speaks to Native Americans, it speaks to Black Americans.”

Holbrook said he’ll start work on June 24. If all goes as planned, he figures the mural will be done July 19. He said they’ll announce a community participation schedule where community members will be invited to lend a hand.

He said Barilla and Bratten already have signed onto the community’s mural team.

“That’s meaningful, because when I met them, it was serendipitous … it just means a lot for me to be able to work with them as well,” Holbrook said.

Steubenville currently has 23 murals. Several were lost due to building deterioration or demolition so sites can be repurposed for other uses.

“Building owners have no obligation to maintain the structures,” Bratten said, “(And) we have redone many of those still on display to keep them looking good.”

Over the years, she said the Visitor Center has appropriated a portion of its lodging tax revenue to cover repairs and to save for new murals. Most of the cost for the new mural — $30,000 — will be paid by Visitor Center funds, though they also are soliciting donations to cover the remaining costs.

Donations can be made online at www.OldFortSteuben.com or by contacting the Visitor Center at (740) 283-1787.

Bratten said they’re also applying for grants.

“We still have many visitors who come to see the murals and stay in town to dine and shop,” she said. “They are an asset for our local economy as well as a source of pride for the community.”