Safety isn’t the only reason to stop at traffic lights in Arnold.
The city has five traffic signal control boxes decorated with artwork, and people might want to take a few moments to admire them.
Two streetlight control boxes also have been decorated with paintings.
Four St. Louis-area artists came together last year to paint the boxes with images of Arnold landmarks from over the years, like the water tower in its original green color and buildings that have been razed.
One box features an apple orchard and another an owl.
The Arnold Beautification Commission funded the project, which cost $4,200, City Administrator Bryan Richison said.
“They look great,” he said. “The Beautification Commission is hoping to do more. Our challenge is that we have done all of the ones we own. We are reaching out to (the Missouri Department of Transportation) for permission to paint more boxes.”
The boxes
The painted traffic-signal boxes are at the intersections of Old Lemay Ferry and Arnold Commons roads; Church Road and Stardust Drive; Church and Old Lemay Ferry roads; Vogel and Theodore roads near the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; and Richardson and St. John’s Church roads.
Decorated streetlight control boxes are on Arnold Tenbrook Road and on Michigan Avenue.
The box at Old Lemay Ferry and Arnold Commons roads is near an entrance to the First Baptist Church of Arnold and features a painting of the former Forest View Inn – one of the three images linking the city to the old town of Maxville, which along with Beck, Flamm City, Old Town Arnold, Tenbrook and Wickes combined to create the city of Arnold, which was incorporated in 1972.
“The Forest View Inn was at the corner of that driveway leading up to the church,” said Elizabeth Crabtree, one of the artists who worked on the paintings. “A local resident randomly stopped to talk to me about it one day while I was working on the box (featuring the Forest View Inn).”
Crabtree said Arnold Historical Society president Jackie Howell helped the artists come up with a list of images to paint.
The box at Church and Old Lemay Ferry roads near the Cedarhurst of Arnold senior living community has a painting of the Maxville Hotel.
At Church Road and Stardust Drive, the box features a painting of the old Jacob Becker’s Store.
“The ones in Maxville are the ones I like the best,” said Howell, who moved to Arnold in 1965. “I always liked old buildings. So much of that town of Maxville was there when I moved here. I always thought it was interesting to drive through there.”
The box on Vogel Road has a painting of an apple orchard.
“I couldn’t link that spot with a township,” said Crabtree, 36, who grew up in Oakville and now lives in Affton. “After speaking with Jackie, I found out that area had larger farms. That is why I went with an apple orchard because this was a farming community. If I couldn’t find a particular building, then something else instrumental to the area felt right to paint.”
The signal box at Richardson and St. John’s Church roads was one of two boxes painted to resemble the Arnold Water Tower when it was green. The other water tower was painted on the smaller streetlight control box on Michigan Avenue.
Crabtree said she searched for the right shade of green to paint the water tower, which the Public Water Supply District No. 1 painted blue in 2015. Prior to that, it had been the distinct green color since 1977.
“I sent the color around to several different Arnold residents who I know and remember the Arnold tower,” Crabtree said. “The green I picked out is ‘Shamrock Love’ because that was the winning color the residents picked. I looked at the font where it just said Arnold on the water tower and tried to duplicate that as much as possible.
“I can’t tell you how many residents were delighted to see that. They were upset at the color change. If you sit on the lawn (at Michigan Avenue), the picture lines up with the water tower.”
The box on Arnold Tenbrook Road, across the street from Spencer Contracting Co., 3073 Arnold Tenbrook Road, has an impressionist rendition of a barred owl.
“They (barred owls) were a friend to farmers, and they lived near rivers,” Crabtree said. “It pops out at you and stares at you as you drive by.”
Mayor Ron Counts said city staff members have heard numerous positive comments about the painted boxes.
“I really like the fact that some of the boxes depict buildings from way back that are gone,” Counts said. “I remember the buildings and had been in a lot of them. It is really cool to remember that I used to go into that store.”
The work
Crabtree, who owns Sanguine Tree Fine Art Studio, said it took more than 550 hours to paint the boxes.
She said the work began in 2019 and finished late in 2020.
Originally artists Marcia Hahn and Sara O’Shea were going to help her complete the paintings.
“They helped with two of the sketches and did some of the prep work,” Crabtree said. “They were not able to carry on in 2020.”
That left Crabtree scrambling to find others to help her with the paintings. She said she reached out to about 10 artists and at first had no luck recruiting help with the project.
“At one point it was a little scary, and I did think I was going to have to do all seven by myself,” Crabtree said.
Eventually, though, Ashley Moran came on board.
Crabtree said she had worked with Moran in an art group and knew Moran from when the two painted murals in Festus.
The two worked together to paint the apple orchard on the Vogel Road box.
“She was like now that I know what we are doing, I know two other artists,” Crabtree said.
That’s when Britney DeClue and Molly Chakides joined the project.
After assembling, the artists had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, which Crabtree said pushed the painting back later than initially anticipated.
Crabtree said the artists kept in touch about when each of them was going to work on a box, and it took a while before they felt comfortable working together because of the risk of spreading the virus.
“We had to work with each other to constantly check to see who we had been around, and if we were comfortable meeting,” Crabtree said. “I was self-quarantined three times in 2020. There were a lot of challenges, but we got it done. That was the important part.”
The four artists worked so well together they formed the MoonBEAM Collective, with the “BEAM” portion of the name coming from the first letter of each artist’s name, Crabtree said.
Crabtree said they would like to add more artists to the collective and do more municipal projects like the one in Arnold.
“We are a partnership with the intent to get artwork out in public spaces,” Crabtree said.
Counts said he would like to see the group do more work in Arnold.
“The artists were awesome. They did a great job,” he said.