On a corner where Nat King Cole has watched over Bronzeville for years, neighbors say they were caught completely off guard when workers started tearing his image down this week. The sprawling mural on the T.K. Lawless building at East 43rd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive was already about two thirds gone by the time its creator and several residents arrived, and people in the area say they now want answers from the building’s new owners.
Owners say work is part of repairs
Lisa Collins, one of the buyers, told Block Club Chicago that crews removed the mural so they could make exterior repairs and address deteriorating bricks that raised safety concerns. Collins and co owner Ryan Wilkins bought the T.K. Lawless building earlier this year and say they plan to convert the property into a daycare and affordable office workspace. She said the owners intend to convene a small panel and hold a contest for Bronzeville artists to submit proposals for a new mural that would again feature Nat King Cole once the repair work is finished.
A lasting piece of Bronzeville history
The Nat King Cole image was the first piece in artist Chris Devins’s Bronzeville Legends initiative and was installed on the T.K. Lawless building in 2014, according to Landmarks Illinois. Over the past decade the mural has become a visual anchor on neighborhood heritage walks and was highlighted during an International Jazz Day tour earlier this spring, Chicago Sun-Times reported. For many residents it functioned less as a piece of public art and more as a shared neighborhood memory.
Artist and neighbors say the removal was abrupt
Devins said he was stunned to walk up and see crews already pulling the work down, telling Block Club Chicago that roughly two thirds of the mural had been removed by the time he got there. Neighbors who passed the scene described the same jolt. William Salaam said he was shocked to see the mural in pieces, while Sherry Williams argued that a project of this scale should have been clearly announced to the community ahead of time. Their reactions tap into long running tensions in Bronzeville over who gets to decide what stays on the neighborhood’s most visible walls.
Fundraising and the property
The mural’s creator organized a fundraiser in 2023 that brought in about 2,000 dollars for repair work on the piece, as shown on the GoFundMe campaign. The T.K. Lawless building at 4301–4309 South King Drive, where the mural sat on the north face, is included in a property brochure and marketing packet for the site, a property brochure that features the address and images of the mural. Neighbors say they now want a clear, public timeline for exterior work and for any artist selection process to be transparent, community oriented and led by people from Bronzeville.
What residents want next
For many in Bronzeville the sudden loss of the mural is a pointed reminder that preservation depends on ongoing community voice and oversight, not just on the stated intentions of new owners. The Bronzeville Legends initiative, which Landmarks Illinois notes was funded through community crowdfunding and supported by Ald. Pat Dowell’s office, was created to celebrate local history and relied on neighborhood input when it launched. Residents are now calling for a public meeting, and for the owners and elected officials to spell out a concrete schedule for the repairs and the promised process to design the next mural.
