Artist saves Halloween mural

Web posted October 12, 2000

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By Johnny Edwards
Staff Writer

After all these years, local airbrush artist Ken Rayburn Jr. was surprised his creepy creation survived.

Eleven years ago this week, he painted a sprawling mural in Augusta's abandoned city jail for a haunted house put on by the Augusta Police Department. When he stepped inside the decaying building Wednesday, there stood an 8-by-16-foot section of the mural - a time capsule of what was frightening in the late 1980s.

Ken Rayburn dismantles a mural which he painted for a haunted house 11 years ago at the old jail on Ninth and Reynolds streets. Mr. Rayburn recently found out the mural was still there; he plans to restore it and give it to another haunted house. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

``I had forgotten it even existed,'' he said.

With its barred windows, dark corridors and winding stairways, the brick building at the corner of Ninth and Reynolds streets was perfect for a haunted house. Mr. Rayburn volunteered to decorate the front lobby, using spray paint and an airbrush to draw horror film characters Freddy Krueger and Jason, along with a blue demon, a werewolf, ghosts and skeletons.

The police department took its Halloween operation elsewhere after the building was condemned. Broken locks, shattered windows and piles of bottles and beer cans are evidence the jail became a popular place to break into and drink.

Despite the vandalism and graffiti, a section of the mural remained. Mr. Rayburn, now 38, learned this from a friend's teen-age son last week.

Valerie Spratlin, public information officer for Rural/Metro Ambulance, helped Mr. Rayburn paint the piece in 1989, when she was his co-worker at T-Shirts Plus at Regency Mall. She tracked down the building's owners and learned Hull/Storey Development plans to renovate the building for office space.

Using crowbars and hammers, Mr. Rayburn and Rural/Metro mechanic Douglas ``Sparky'' Newsome carefully removed the mural's boards from a heavy frame Wednesday and placed them in storage. The artist said he wants to restore the mural and donate it to another local haunted house.

``It's lasted all these years,'' Mr. Rayburn said. ``We may as well pass it on to somebody who can use it.''

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or jedwards92@hotmail.com.

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