Future gas station dooms Dean Smith mural in Chapel Hill. Artist looking for new canvas.
Scott Nurkin got out his ladder and paints after Dean Smith died in 2015, channeling his grief into a portrait of the legendary UNC basketball coach on a gas station wall on the Orange-Chatham county line.
Dot by thousands of dots, Nurkin captured Smith’s arched brow, the deep wrinkles on his forehead, and the slight smile setting off the twinkle in his eyes.
The final touch was a blue argyle-patterned background reminiscent of the jerseys that UNC alumnus and fashion designer Alexander Julian created for Smith’s Tar Heels basketball team in the early 1990s.
It was a tedious process completed over three weekends, but he “did it out of love for the guy,” Nurkin said.
“I went to basketball camp, when I was a kid, at UNC and was fortunate enough to meet [Smith] and shake his hand a couple of times,” said Nurkin, who graduated from UNC in 2000 and has painted a myriad of murals around Chapel Hill.
“You don’t have to look very hard into the history of Dean Smith to realize he was so much more than just a basketball coach,” he said. “He was just just an inspiration to so many people and a leader, a fighter for civil rights and integration — just an all-around great person.”
But time is running out for the mural at the corner of Smith Level Road and U.S. 15-501. It will be demolished to make way for a new Refuel convenience store.
On Sunday, Nurkin posted a Facebook plea for help finding a new wall to paint a new tribute to the Chapel Hill coach.
“Been looking for a while with zero luck so far. Needs to be big and in town. I’ll take care of financing,” the post said. “Share widely, sharebears. Also, get at me UNCCH people with influence and money. Love you, Dean!”
A future tribute might also include Roy Williams, who served as assistant coach under Smith and led the Tar Heels men’s basketball team as head coach from 2003 to 2021, Nurkin told The News & Observer by phone Monday.
Chapel Hill corner’s long history
The former Starpoint Center site on the county line was a rural hub for farmers and neighbors when the highway to Pittsboro was a two-lane country road.
An ABC store anchored part of the site, along with a series of local bars in the space next door, including the Pub, which opened in 1970. In 1975, the Pub reopened as the Starpoint Tavern, offering beer, pinball and live music.
That lasted about a year, and a new owner renovated the space, reopening in 1977 as Gryphon — the Triangle’s only bar with full bartending services, The Daily Tar Heel reported. Musicians flocked to the club because of its “excellent acoustics,” the student newspaper said.
Over time, the bars closed, leaving only the faded gas station and some small, local shops, including Nurkin’s studio, The Mural Shop, which opened in 2000. In 2013, Walmart opened in what had been a field across the highway, bringing more commercial and residential growth.
Now, construction crews are poised to build a new, 3,468-square-foot ReFuel convenience store with six pump stations, replacing the gas station and two other vacant, rundown buildings. A retaining wall will encircle the steep hill on the west side of the property.
A small family cemetery with three marked graves and the remains of a fourth tombstone will be preserved on the site’s northeastern corner.
Writing on the wall
Nurkin said he’s known the mural was doomed for about three years. The new owner asked him at one point what it would cost to move the mural, but his estimate was about five times the cost of painting a new mural somewhere else, he said.
So he put feelers out for a new location, “hoping somebody would come in and save the day,” Nurkin said, but no one answered the call.
Finding a willing owner can be difficult, he added.
“There are buildings around. It’s just always something complicated,” Nurkin said.
“A lot of times building owners don’t want murals on their buildings, because they think it will somehow make them depreciate or something like that, or for political reasons, or for their own personal beliefs,” he said. “It’s actually harder than you think.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Future gas station dooms Dean Smith mural in Chapel Hill. Artist looking for new canvas.."
