Fair Haven: The World’s Oyster mural by Russell Rainbolt in Fair Haven

Russell Rainbolt. Fair Haven: The World’s Oyster, 2026

Fair Haven: The World’s Oyster is a public mural by Russell Rainbolt produced by Site Projects in New Haven, Connecticut. The mural can be found at the corner of Grand Avenue and Ferry Street. Rainbolt, who for 30+ years has been painting murals, billboards as well as very large renderings of Super Heroes.

Site Projects selected Rainbolt to design and paint the mural. It depicts Fair Haven in the last half of the 19th century at a time when Fair Haven was the oystering capitol of America’s East Coast.

We hope this artwork will inspire more questions than it answers - always one of our goals. Some of those questions might be answered by an accompanying narrative by Ian Dudley, a Head Teacher at Cold Springs School in Fair Haven.

An elderly man painting a brick wall outdoors, wearing a black t-shirt, a beige hat with a dark blue cap, using a small brush.
An older man with a beard wearing a red, black, and green knit cap painting a mural on a brick wall with a paint roller, while a young woman in a black tank top holding a paint bucket looks on.
Two artists painting a mural on a brick wall outdoors. The mural depicts a water scene with boats and figures. One artist is standing on a ladder, and the other is kneeling on the ground, both focused on their work.
A person with short dark hair, wearing glasses and a black sleeveless top, painting a graffiti mural on a brick wall. The mural features a stylized face with prominent white teeth, dark eyes, and a colorful background.
Colorful mural depicting a waterfront scene with houses, trees, a church steeple, and people harvesting crops along a river. The mural is painted on a brick wall next to a brick building with a sign for Elm City Pharmacy.
A mural depicting people working by a river, possibly panning for gold, with rocks and water in the scene, painted on a brick wall.