‘Ghost murals’ being restored across Appalachia

HINTON, W.Va. (AP) — Coca-Cola Consolidated is working across Appalachia to restore “ghost murals.”

The murals were painted on buildings more than a century ago, before radio commercials, electronic billboards or television. Now the once-colorful ads are fading.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/1nWhPwS) says one of the largest restored ghost murals to date was unveiled recently in Hinton. The mural in the Summers County community is 17 feet tall, 60 feet wide. It dates back nearly a century.

It’s one of thousands of Coca-Cola ads painted at the turn of the century, many of them in the rural south.

The company has restored about 15 murals across three Appalachian states so far.

The locations include Rocky Mount and Roanoke, Virginia, and Concord and Hendersonville, North Carolina, among others.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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