A wall in East Harlem with something to tell you

East Harlem is home to colorful murals—chronicling rappers, revolutionaries, even cartoon characters (Mickey Mouse is on 110th Street, go figure).

But the four-story mural on Lexington Avenue at 104th Street is really something. “The Spirit of East Harlem,” painted by Hank Prussing in the mid-1970s, chronicles the domino players, musicians, mothers, and playground denizens of the neighborhood at the time.

The Daily News has some backstory:

“The mural, which survived a building fire in 1974, depicts children and adults from a neighborhood devastated by the housing abandonment and economic hard times of the 1970s.

“‘I saw people that seemed to be living life to the fullest, even though on the outside it didn’t look that way,’ said Prussing, 50. ‘It’s that incredible community spirit that came through. They were all closely knit, like a big family.'”