New Deal Era murals depict a simpler county life

The Hyattsville Post Office, in Prince George's County, Maryland, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On most days, hundreds of people come and go by the post office, depositing their stamped, outgoing letter mail in one of four sturdy, blue U.S. Mail boxes that flank both sides of the post office's front staircase. Then, they disappear just as quickly, going about their daily business, perhaps ducking into Vigilante Coffee around the corner for an espresso drink or a croissant.

However, it's worth slowing down for a just a moment – or three – to go inside the interior of this north-facing, rectangular Colonial Revival building that was constructed during FDR's New Deal Era and discover the rest of the story behind this remarkable, one-story brick structure located at 4325 Gallatin Street. To do so is like stepping back in time into a simpler era of county life during a different century.

One look around the Hyattsville Post Office lobby reveals six murals created by the American Regionalist artist Eugene Kingman (1909-1975), whose en plein style depicts the agricultural heritage of Prince George's Country situated in Maryland's 5th Congressional District bordering northeast Washington, D.C. A cornstalk stripe below each mural ties their composition together.

A large wall plaque dated 1935 honors the beginning of the Hyattsville Post Office building, which was erected "under the acts of Congress of May 25, 1926 and June 19, 1934 and was completed during the administration of Frank D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America."

In researching the history of both the Hyattsville Post Office and Kingman's murals, I learned that they consist of vignettes depicting county life during the New Deal Era of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-37). Among the images are: horses grazing behind a fence, a rural church, frame structures along water with masts of sailboats visible in the distance, and ploughed fields. Several of these murals also reveal the appearance of rural delivery mail boxes in the foreground.

During the New Deal Era, Kingman, a native of Rhode Island, received commissions to create murals for two other U.S. post offices besides Hyattsville. His murals are still on display in post offices in East Providence, Rhode Island, and in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

It should be noted that credit for the architectural quality of the Hyattsville Post Office goes to Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Smith W. Purdum, who was a Hyattsville resident and lived nearby. Purdum spearheaded the engineering and research of the post office building and devoted great attention to its construction as well as to the design and execution of the murals.

Just after 8 o'clock one recent morning, as I stepped inside the Hyattsville Post Office to check my P.O. box for incoming mail – I was the only person inside the building's lobby before the post office windows opened for business at 9 a.m. – I looked around and marveled at both the beauty and artistry of this place and its murals. I tried to imagine what it must have been like when mailing a first-class letter cost just three cents. One thing that I find impressive today is the lobby has retained a remarkable degree of integrity. It has an old-fashioned look and feel, yet it also serves the residents of Hyattsville and the general public who also use it very efficiently.

(Learn more about the architectural detail of the Hyattsville Post Office here.)

Photos: Mural photos by Michael Dickens © 2017. Hyattsville Post Office photo courtesy of Google images.

Paul Simon: Still creative after all these years

Paul Simon / Feeling groovy late in the evening.

Paul Simon's 13th solo album, Stranger to Stranger, is just out to critical acclaim, and following two recent weekend concerts at UC-Berkeley's Greek Theater, the 74-year-old singer/songwriter stopped by City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco last week for an insightful conversation with Dave Eggers that was a benefit for the writer's 826 Valencia project.

For over 90 minutes, Simon, whom New Yorker critic Kelefa Sanneh recently labeled as "one of the most accomplished overthinkers in the history of popular music," spoke both thoughtfully and haltingly about a variety of things, including: his new album, a series of songs filled with experiments in rhythm and texture throughout its lithe 37-minute duration; his creative process; his approach to writing music and composing lyrics that paint an imperfect world; and the emotional outpouring from singing "The Boxer" on the same night as Muhammad Ali's death, just moments after learning of The Greatest's passing.

As Simon spoke about the physics of sound – "the tone of the universe is a slightly flat B-flat" – he also strummed a faux air guitar, picking at the melody with his right hand and moving the fingers of his left hand up and down his imaginary fretboard. Later on, he reached for a guitar positioned behind his chair to illustrate a chord progression as he crooned the notes to a song.

On Stranger to Stranger, Simon's collaborators include the Italian electronic producer Clap! Clap! and long-dead composer and inventor Harry Partch, whose variety of homemade instruments contributed to the texture and dreamlike ambience of the album.


https://soundcloud.com/concordmusicgroup/the-werewolf


On "The Werewolf," for instance, Stereogum.com, writes: "Warped banjo, hand claps, and intricate down-home percussion are interjected with peculiar invest bursts. Simon soulfully warns of a werewolf's impending approach with some vivid storytelling and irresistible melodies."

Always a storyteller, Simon shared a funny anecdote about a 2004 Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert that he and his former music partner Art Garfunkel gave on the grounds of the Rome Colosseum. He said that while Garfunkel was singing an extended solo, Simon gazed out at nearby residents listening from their apartment balconies while thinking to himself, "I wonder what an apartment like that would cost?" He also talked about his 1986 ground-breaking album Graceland, and waxed about what it's been like being in the midst of a late-career renaissance.

"He has managed to become neither a wizened oracle nor an oldies act, and his best songs convey the appealing sensation of listening to a guy who is still trying to figure out what he's doing," wrote Sanneh in his New Yorker article, "Cool Papa," published last month.

Paul Simon and Dave Eggers / Old friends.

"Ain't no song like an old song," Simon once wrote, and the New York native has been practicing his craft for the past 50 years, releasing a new album about every three years or so. Although Simon said he doesn't keep up with the latest music trends and hits, he remains an attentive listener with a curious mind, one who always is collecting raw ingredients and rhythms for the future. Writing music, he noted, gets harder.

"But harder is fine. It's not like harder is the opposite of fun."

By night's end, Simon broke out an acoustic guitar and sang "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)," which served as a nice bookend. He left to a standing ovation from the mostly Baby Boomer audience at The Nourse.

It all made for a memorable and enjoyable evening.

Photos: By Michael Dickens © 2016.