MURAL SKETCH

Brockton Shoe Industry Mural
Concept and sketch by Mural Team Artist Laura DeDonato

The mural’s narrative begins at the top left with future Brockton Mayor and Massachusetts Governor W.L. Douglas. He is depicted carrying rolls of leather back from Boston to make shoes in his one room factory. Douglas’s business expanded to six factories, with production peaking at 20,000 pairs of shoes a day.

Below him, there is a left and right shoe mold to symbolize Brockton’s Chandler Sprague’s innovation of making left and right shoes. Prior to this, shoes were constructed using the same shape for both feet and today are called “straights”.

Common cobbler tools found on shop benches transition the scene to a bird’s eye view of the Walk-Over Factories. To the right of the factories a man is working inside on machinery and the shoe line. A common male and female shoe style frame the machinery image.

To the upper right is the Campello Shoe Shop, where customers could purchase shoes from the factories. The young boy on the right is putting on his father’s shoes, perhaps ones made in the factories, and symbolizing the big shoes that the youth of the Brockton community must fill to help the city prosper again. The banner at the top and the flourishes around the border will match the classic early 1900 illustrated advertisement at the bottom right, where the artists will sign the mural.