Jeremy Canova, during the early stages of painting.
BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
The Lue Gim Gong mural, once a familiar sight on the north wall of 237 N. Woodland Blvd. in DeLand, finally has a new home in Artisan Alley.
The original mural, depicting Lue with his pet rooster, March, was painted by local artist Courtney Canova in 2003. In 2015, a vehicle crashed into the property, making the wall unstable and destroying the mural.
Over the course of this week, Canova, his son Jeremy, and local artist Bianca Braga have recreated the original mural on a wall in Artisan Alley near New York Avenue.
Lue, a Chinese immigrant born in 1860, was known as “The Citrus Wizard” in DeLand. He experimented in cross-pollination, focusing on producing more cold-tolerant citrus and created what became an early version of today’s Valencia orange.
He died in DeLand in 1925.
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