One day, the wall reads, "Two geese cannot achieve happiness alone." It wishes Manda Kate a happy 16th birthday. It thanks a wife for her hard work.
The next day, it might resurrect Bob Marley, welcome back a friend or say nothing at all.
In a place where time is represented by the thickness of the paint on the wall, the 34th Street mural freezes in time a moment in students' lives.
For years, the wall has been a place for self-expression by UF, and Santa Fe College students, and Gainesville residents; however, if you're new in town, you might not yet know about this timeless post.
"A lot of freshmen don't know about a lot of things," said John Parady, a freshman studying finance and political science. "I think the wall is one of those hidden traditions at UF that people come to know with time."
The wall is not just a tradition. It is a memorial to the living and the dead with each layer of latex paint. But, time stands still at the middle.
Almost two decades after the murder of five students at UF and SFCC, the mural that served as a shrine to the victims on 34th Street still remains. However, the meaning behind the layers of paint is fading as a younger generation moves in town.
"It's a college town," said Erich Usery, a Gainesville native and UF student. "The population is always changing and growing. The wall has faded from importance and from people's minds."
Usery can remember the memorial ever since he moved in to the apartments across the street from the wall at the age of three. However, he always found it difficult to identify with it.
"I see it, and I respect it for what it is," he said. "That is as far as it goes for me. I wasn't born when it happened."
The wall was built in 1979 when the Florida Department of Transportation expanded the street from two lanes to four. However, the department didn't realize it created an icon for the city, where locals, students and artists would express themselves with colors and words on any of the 45 panels, each about 20 feet long.
The panel at the crest of the arching wall takes you back in time. It has not changed in almost 19 years.
On Sept. 3, 1990, two men with a plan and $11.25 used their grocery money to buy paintbrushes, rollers and the cheapest paint they could find.
They forced their Honda Spree up a hill on 34th Street until they reached the crest of a 1,120-foot-long wall that borders the Mark Bostick Golf Course. That night, they painted a message on the concrete wall dedicated to the memory of the five students who were murdered by Danny Rolling in August 1990. It read, "We Remember" in bold, white letters on a black background, followed by the names of the victims: Sonja Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Leigh Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada.The following day, Paul Chase and Adam Tritt's discount mural became a shrine to the students.
"We figured we'd give the city a central memorial," said Tritt, who owns a medical practice in Palm Bay.
Weeks and months passed. Birthday wishes, marriage proposals, political comments and art were painted on the wall and then quickly covered by something else, but the memorial stayed, occasionally being touched up by "the keepers of the wall," unknown artists who kept the wall intact.
"It wasn't supposed to last this long," Tritt said. "It wasn't even supposed to last a week."
For the next 10 years, Sadie Darnell, then public information officer for the Gainesville Police Department and now Alachua County Sheriff, would touch up the wall whenever someone painted over it, but sometimes it would be done by the time she got there, according to published records.
Today, the "keepers of the wall" are less mysterious.
The Interfraternity Council at UF took on the responsibility to maintain the wall after Darnell announced she wouldn't maintain the wall anymore.
"We want to keep the memory of these students alive," said Zach Appleman, the service director for the Interfraternity Council.
Appleman and service volunteers from the fraternities and sororities touch up the wall whenever someone reports it has been vandalized. They repaint the memorial twice a year.
People tend to know by now not to paint over the red framed part of the wall. But, it still happens from time to time.
"It frustrates me to see people paint over it," Usery said. "I understand why they would. They don't really know about it."
The Interfraternity Council plans to put a plaque on the wall with the names of the victims this fall. Maybe then, people won't forget.
"We are not going to set up this memorial for it to be forgotten," he said. "We want to make it more significant to the Gainesville community."
