We are delighted to unveil a stunning new mural titled "King Street Timelapse", designed by artist Lucy Bilson and located in the Ellis Little Local History Room at the Main Library. This project was made possible due to funding received from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.

We are grateful for the opportunity to showcase art that speaks to the local history of our city.  


Artist Statement 

King Street Timelapse was designed by Lucy Bilson in collaboration with the WPL team and explores the local history at 2 King Street North through a collage of photography, archive materials, and illustration. 

The layering of visual forms represents the many lives this building has lived. Hotel. Curling Club. Korean restaurant. Barbers. Bank offices. Apartments. Brunch spot. The collage style of the design was chosen to preserve the authenticity of the archive materials and pique library customers’ interest in the publicly available content that lives in the Ellis Little Local History Room. The yellow illustration of the building comes from a menu for Ivy’s Restaurant. The newspaper articles come from the Waterloo Chronicle. The detailed map of buildings is a fire insurance map from the 1900s and the hand drawn map of the region was drawn by Ellis Little, for whom the local history room is named.

In the 184 years since the building was constructed, it has hosted many staff, visitors, club members, guests, renters, and community members and continues to be home to local businesses and residents. The hope for this work is that it helps the people of Waterloo to consider the unseen histories that make Waterloo and that these local histories are, in fact, formed by ordinary people living everyday lives.