Philly mural tells the story of a bank, a neighborhood, a city, and an artist’s on-the-job learning experiences

The graphic artist Lucas Aguilera had never worked with paint — let alone painted a 26-foot-long mural — when he drew the first sketch for The History of Girard Avenue.

His richly detailed creation commands a wall inside the Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank headquarters on the 300 block of East Girard. Chartered on March 31, 1873, it’s Philadelphia’s oldest bank, and Aguilera finished his work on March 26 of this year.

Just in time for the bank’s 150th birthday and the mural’s public debut.

“A couple of hours before we had a little party, Lucas was touching up Rocky’s hand,” retiring Tioga-Franklin CEO John T. Coleman said.

Rocky, Sally Starr, and the Stanley Cup-winning 1974 Flyers (seen on a news box display of an Evening Bulletin front page) are among the Philly icons the Argentina-born artist featured in the mural. He also included allusions to Argentina’s 2022 World Cup and the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl championship.

“Rocky was one of the first [figures] I did on the mural,” said Aguilera, who’s 35. He and his wife, Stephanie, a teacher, live in Washington Township, Gloucester County.

“After a while, I improved my skills, and I decided to make a couple of changes,” he said. “I could have made even more changes. I’m too perfectionist.”

Tioga-Franklin is a community bank, with no branches and only 19 employees. But it is deeply rooted in the working-class neighborhoods of North Philly and the River Wards, where its primary focus has long been home mortgages and small business loans.

“Our story is the city’s story,” said Coleman, 71, whose wife, Regina, works with Stephanie Aguilera. That’s how Lucas got the opportunity to submit the sketch that earned him the Tioga-Franklin commission.

“You can spend two hours with that mural and still miss things,” Coleman said. “There’s an image of Billy Penn — City Hall was being built in 1873 — and the mural takes you to a COVID mask lying on the street in the last panel on the left. The number on the trolley is the year of our incorporation.”

Aguilera painted each brick and inserted names, dates, pets, and sports highlights and other moments of personal or Philadelphia significance into the panorama. A man with a little girl on his shoulders wears a Number 9 Eagles jersey in honor of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Nick Foles, and Bruce Springsteen walks as he did in the title song and video inspired by the 1993 movie Philadelphia.

He began working on the project in July 2020. “It was a little scary, but [the bank] never rushed me,” said Aguilera, adding that he learned about Philly mainly by relying on “Mr. Google” and old newspapers.

“The mural was like a teacher for me,” said the artist. “Each time when I was painting, it taught me something different.”