“There was an audible gasp in the room when I told our general membership meeting what happened,” said Ed Zygmonski, co-chair of Art in Bloom.

Zygmonski had to break the news to Art in Bloom and Lewes in Bloom volunteers: The beloved menhaden mural was gone.

Art in Bloom was responsible for bringing muralist Damon Pla to town to paint the artwork on the east side of the Beacon Inn on Savannah Road. The mural celebrating the city’s menhaden industry was dedicated June 7, 2019.

It depicted fishermen hard at work in Delaware Bay, a nod to Lewes’ long and storied relationship to the sea.

Maggie Lingo, owner of the Beacon Inn, said a storm during the first weekend of November was the last straw for a weakened wall at the inn.

“We discovered a leak behind the wall and we got a lot of rain from the storm, so the combination of all that brought the bottom half down,” Lingo said.

Lingo said the Pig and Publican restaurant shares the lower part of the wall, but did not receive any damage.

Tony Boyd-Heron, a member of Art in Bloom who helped design the mural, surveyed the damage with Pla right after the storm.

The top of half of the mural was not damaged, but they decided the whole thing should come down.

Boyd-Heron was able to salvage some of the panels for posterity.

Lingo said a contractor was able to permanently fix the wall, but left a blank canvas behind.

“There has been no decision on whether to replace the mural. Maybe we could do it somewhere else,” Boyd-Heron said.

Pla said he would be willing to come back and repaint it, Boyd-Heron said. He has pitched the idea of Pla painting a smaller version inside the Historic Lewes museum at the Margaret H. Rollins Center.

Lingo said she is always onboard with Art in Bloom projects and would welcome a new mural on the wall of the inn.

“We’re sorry it happened, but we have to move on,” said Zygmonski.