The glass mosaic had been a familiar sight on the southeast corner of 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem for more than a decade. But that changed last month when workers for a sneaker store that had moved into the storefront on that corner began installing a new facade.

Bit by bit, a wall rose until the bright colors of a 10-foot-by-30-foot mural, called “Spirit of Harlem,” were obscured by an expanse of bricks painted matte black. A long sign spelled out the name of the tenant: Footaction.

Word of the artwork’s absence spread through blog posts and social media.

The mural’s creator, Louis Delsarte, said he was dismayed by the covering up of the work, a reference to the Harlem Renaissance, which in the early 20th century established the neighborhood as a center of African-American culture. One person started a petition to have the mural restored. Another called for a boycott of Footaction.

Then, last week, Footaction’s parent company, Foot Locker, said that it would backtrack. The wall should not have been placed over the mural, a spokeswoman for the company said, and would soon be coming down.