One of two murals that was restored by the Gardendale Historical Society.

Murals removed from the Gardendale Civic Center last year will be moved to a new home in the Gardendale Historical Society’s Museum, according to society president Kermit Dooley.

The murals were ordered removed last year by Mayor Stan Hogeland after two young men allegedly threatened to “mow down” civic center employees if they weren’t removed.

The threats, made to two civic center employees, were not reported to Hogeland for several weeks, he said Monday during the council meeting when Dooley first raised the issue of the murals.

Hogeland said he had discussed with city employees the need to immediately report any threat to the police department but felt, at the point he became aware of the threat, he had to error on the side of caution.

“My job is to protect the city employees, and that’s what I did,” Hogeland said. “The way things are these days, I had to take the threat seriously.”

The civic center also now has cameras and other security measures to prevent issues in the future.

Dooley, who met with Hogeland, the threatened employee and other city leaders, said he now understands why the decision was made to remove the paintings. He said that hearing the expletives used and threats made verbatim from the employee, as well as the fact that there was no way to identify the suspects, leaves him with no doubt that the safety of civic center employees and visitors had to be the priority.

“Although I don’t like to see them down, the mayor made the right call to protect city employees,” Dooley said Thursday.

The murals, which depict a steel mill, a farming family, a train loaded with goods and workers loading or unloading cotton onto a steamboat, were painted by eighth-grade students at Gardendale schools in 1940-41. The caption says that the murals depict agricultural and industrial life at the time.

“To us, it’s nothing but history,” Dooley said. “We wanted to display what the students painted at that time.”

The murals hung in the hallways of Gardendale Elementary School for generations and were removed prior to the destruction of the school. Several years ago, the historical society found the murals at a private residence. The resident donated the murals to the society, which then had them restored and hung in the civic center.

Dooley called the murals one of the most unique and significant historical items preserved from the community.

“So many people in this community went to that school and saw those on a daily basis,” Dooley said.

Dooley appeared at the city council meeting on Monday to ask where the murals were and why they were removed.