Walter P. Lomax, Jr., MD

A Tribute to Dr. Lomax by artist David McShane was located in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Walter Lomax was born and raised on 19th and Reed Streets and began his career by opening a clinic on 18th and Wharton Streets. He provided high quality medical care to neighborhood for 32 years. His practice grew and Dr. Lomax founded HealthQuest, a national health magazine for African Americans, Foster America, Inc, which helps at-risk youth in the Foster care system, and Correctional Healthcare Solutions, Inc., which provides healthcare to prison systems. The mural features a large portrait of Dr. Lomax with a patterned background including symbols representing different aspects of his work. The symbols include: the winged staff with two snakes entwined which is the universal symbol for physicians; one street sign indicating where he was born, another street sign indicating the location of his clinic; the magazine symbol representing HealthQuest; the stick figures representing Foster America, Inc.; and the symbol with the stethoscope and the prison bars representing Correctional Healthcare Solutions, Inc.

The community felt it was important to depict a positive role model who was not only from the neighborhood, but who stayed there to do good work. Neighborhood children helped fill in the bottom part of the mural and painted the small cinder block wall to the left of the mural during Saturday morning mural workshops that the artist organized for them.

Location Note: View of mural may be partially obscured by adjacent construction as of 2023.