Harrison's New Mural Recalls Student Murals of the Past

The Town of Harrison invites residents to become artists for a day as a new community mural takes shape through a series of public painting sessions at the Harrison Community Center.

Professional muralist Caren Frost Olmsted of the Olmsted Mural Group designed the project, but Harrison residents can participate directly by creating portions of the artwork. The finished mural is planned for the North Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard side of the Harrison Community Center, at 401 Warren Street. The Town describes it as a large-scale public artwork intended to celebrate Harrison's history, people, and changing community.

The project also brings back memories of an earlier community mural effort in Harrison, one that involved Harrison High School students, volunteers and then-Second Ward Councilman Anselmo Millan, who worked together to transform an unattractive area beneath and alongside the railroad overpass near Harrison Avenue and Second Street into a landscaped and mural gateway welcoming people into town.

Community Members Painting the New Mural

The Town's 2026 project began by asking residents what they believe a mural about Harrison should represent.

Earlier this year, the Town posted a community questionnaire seeking residents' ideas about Harrison's history, culture, industries, immigrant population, soccer tradition and redevelopment. Subjects specifically offered for consideration included Harrison's Lenape history, Edison Lamp Works, RCA, Crucible Steel, Worthington Pump, Otis Elevator, the PATH station, the Passaic River, immigrant workers, soccer, and waterfront redevelopment. The questionnaire also asked residents what colors, traditions, and images best represent Harrison. The Harrison Toxic Sludge Plant has not been worked into the mural as of the publication of this article

Caren Frost Olmsted is an experienced New Jersey muralist whose company says she has participated in more than 150 mural projects. Her work emphasizes collaborative projects in which community members help create the artwork rather than simply watching a professional artist paint it. That collaborative approach is now underway in Harrison.

The public painting sessions are being held inside the gymnasium at the Harrison Community Center. Participants do not need artistic experience, and supplies and smocks are being provided. The sessions are scheduled for Thursday through Tuesday, September 24, 25, 26, 28, and 29, except Sunday. Participants paint during 90-minute sessions.

The Mural Is Being Paid From Harrison's Capital Fund

A review of Harrison's municipal records provides considerably more information about what the new mural will cost and where the money is coming from.

At its April 21, 2026 meeting, the Harrison Mayor and Council considered a resolution awarding a non-fair-and-open contract to CFO Design LLC for the Community Center mural project. The resolution says the Town wanted "to beautify the exterior of the Community Center with a mural."

The contract has a maximum value of $50,000. More importantly, the resolution identifies the funding source: Harrison's Capital Fund budget through Ordinance 1485. The Town's Chief Financial Officer certified that the funds were available from that source.

Thus, based on the Town records, the current mural is municipally funded through Harrison's Capital Fund, rather than being identified in the resolution as a privately financed or outside grant-funded project.

The resolution also states that Harrison's Qualified Purchasing Agent determined that the acquisition would exceed $17,500. CFO Design LLC was required to submit the applicable business-entity and political-contribution disclosure certifications associated with the non-fair-and-open contracting process.

Caren Frost Olmsted's mural business is associated online with CFO Design, and the Town separately identifies Olmsted and the Olmsted Mural Group as its mural partner.

Where Will Harrison's New Mural Go?

The Town's own community questionnaire answers another important question.

It states that Olmsted was commissioned to create a large-scale public artwork on the Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard side of the Community Center.

That means residents are currently painting sections indoors at the Community Center, but the finished public artwork is intended for the building's exterior facing Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard.

The Town says residents' responses to its questionnaire were meant to influence the mural's final design, rather than having the artist determine the subject matter entirely.

Harrison Has Done This Before

However, an interesting historical footnote accompanies the Town's promotion of the 2026 project.

Some current publicity has referred to the project as Harrison's "first community mural." Harrison actually has a documented history of community mural painting involving Harrison residents and students.

Decades ago, Harrison High School Environmental Club and Art Club students worked with then-Second Ward Councilman Anselmo Millan, local residents, artists, and other volunteers on a substantial beautification project at Harrison Avenue near Second Street and the Route 280 eastbound entrance, where the NJ Transit railroad passes overhead.

Your Harrison documented that project in photographs and two retrospective articles published in 2022.

See Your Harrison's photographs of the Environmental Club project

See Your Harrison's history of the Harrison Avenue murals

The photographs are particularly valuable because they document that the earlier project was not simply a mural commissioned from an outside artist.

Students and volunteers were physically involved in painting and improving the property.

One surviving photograph shows Millan on a ladder with students and volunteers working on the "Welcome to Harrison" mural, which incorporated Harrison's traditional Beehive of Industry imagery. Other photographs show students and volunteers landscaping the railroad embankment and posing in front of the completed artwork. Click Here For Harrison Avenue Mural Article

From an Eyesore to a Gateway Into Harrison

The earlier undertaking went well beyond putting paint on a wall.

According to archival reporting, Millan organized volunteers to first clean the area around the Route 280 ramp and railroad overpass. Professional painters, local artists, Harrison High School Environmental Club and Art Club students, and residents later joined the project.

The group painted murals celebrating Harrison, installed landscaping, and created stonework spelling out "Harrison" along the embankment. The result turned what had been an unattractive entrance into town into a landscaped community gateway. The location was particularly visible because motorists entering or leaving Route 280 on Harrison Avenue passed directly through the area.

The historical photographs show the scale of the transformation: painted landscapes stretched across the walls while planted areas, retaining stonework and the large Harrison lettering occupied the slope below.

Harrison High School Students Were Central to the Project

The connection between Councilman Anselmo Millan and the students is also independently preserved in a speech published years later in an award ceremony at the Harrison Lions Club honoring Millan and others.

Yezenia Sanabria, describing the Harrison High School Environmental Club's work with Millan, recalled that students cleaned the Route 280 ramp, installed landscaping, and helped paint the mural at Harrison Avenue and Second Street. Click for Yezenia Sanabria Speech

Millan established the Harrison Beautification Committee in 1995, according to historical material documenting his years on the Council. Environmental Club students later participated in cleanups, murals, landscaping, and other beautification projects around Harrison, including Harrison Fest, a three-day celebration with a Queen Gala, a Grand Parade down Harrison Avenue, and a Street Festival from Davis Avenue to 2nd Street along Harrison Avenue.

Historical accounts also indicate that the earlier beautification efforts relied upon a combination of volunteers, sponsors, and grants. The surviving records list several grant programs associated with the broader beautification and neighborhood-improvement work. That distinction matters when comparing the old project's financing with the Town's current $50,000-authorized contract.

The Original Murals Did Not Survive

Despite the earlier project's success as a community beautification effort, the murals did not remain permanently.

The murals were eventually painted over, and the landscaping and streetscape changed. The article also reported that bulletin boards previously removed with permission of NJ Transit Rail Operations were later reinstalled.

What remains especially significant today is the photographic record

It shows that Harrison residents and high-school students participated directly in community mural painting long before the current project. The photographs include students painting, volunteers landscaping, Millan working alongside participants, and a photograph involving the late Mayor Raymond J. McDonough and NJ Transit personnel

A New Generation Picks Up the Paintbrush

The two projects share an interesting parallel. The earlier Harrison Avenue undertaking enlisted young people and residents to beautify a highly visible entrance to the community. The 2026 project again asks ordinary residents to participate directly in creating public art intended to represent the community.

There are also significant differences. The earlier project combined murals with cleanup, landscaping, and hardscaping around the Harrison Avenue/Route 280 railroad area. The current project is a professionally designed mural commissioned for the exterior of a municipal building, with a Town contract authorized for up to $50,000 from the Capital Fund. Link to Mural approval

And while Harrison's current publicity describes the undertaking as its "first community mural," Harrison's own history and surviving photographs tell a broader story.

Long before the current Community Center project, Harrison High School students, residents, volunteers, and local officials had already discovered something the Town is rediscovering in 2026: a blank wall can become more than a wall when a community is invited to paint it together.

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