Post Office Art: Scenes of New York

Scenes of New York


Scenes of New York
Title: Scenes of New York
City: New York, New York
Location: Madison Square Post Office
Artist: Kindred McLeary
Date: 1937
Medium: Tempera on Plaster

Information

New York City's Madison Square Post Office embodies in one site all of the glories and frustrations of art in post offices across the country. The post office itself is a grand old building in moderately good repair. It houses eight large murals in bright, almost garish color. The murals represent a marvelous slice of life in New York City in the 1930's.

The murals themselves are allotted a generous amount of space in the post office and are accompanied by plaques with useful and informative information, as reproduced below. But the attitude of post office staff shows a total disregard for the artwork, and it's likely that it will, over time, be destroyed.

As in many post offices, it is impossible to get a full view of some of the murals, since display racks and other clutter have been placed in front of the lower portions of the murals. More seriously, there are some mechanical problems with the building -- leaks in the ceiling -- that have been allowed to damage the murals. One leak has sent a drip down one of the murals, and it's clear that this damage has been ignored for many years.

While post office management has obviously ignored the upkeep of the murals, they are very particular about how patrons may view the murals. The layout of the post office includes a side lobby on the right, where it is possible to enjoy the murals hanging there at one's leisure. But in the main lobby, where the customer windows are located, anyone attempting to photograph the murals will quickly be told to stop this activity.

The staff's objections to photography have nothing to do with the smooth operation of the customer windows. Rather photography is banned under the mistaken impression that photography is banned in all federal buildings. This contradicts official USPS policy, which puts photography at the disgression of the local postmaster.

The lead clerk at the Madison Square Post Office, while firmly insisting that it is illegal to photograph the murals, could not cite any document or any official in support of this policy. She agreed that she would allow photographs to be taken if I returned with a letter acknowledging that photography was permitted, but would not name anyone by whom such a letter might be written.

So we have a situation in which the artwork suffers neglect, public access is restricted, and there is no accountability by the local post office management. But the murals themselves are well worth seeing. Enjoy them while you can!

There follows the text from plaques around the Madison Square Post Office.

Madison Square Postal Station New York City
The eight murals in the public lobby were executed in tempera on plaster by Kindred McLeary of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. McLeary received his commission as a result of an Honorable Mention in a Section of Fine Arts competition.
Description of Murals
These exceptionally original designs belong definitely to New York City. Six large panels, "Park Avenue," "Harlem," "Greenwich Village," "Wall Street," and "Lower East Side" represent characteristic street scenes in different parts of the city. Localities of the widest divergence in character have been chosen to show the multiformity of inhabitants and ways of life in New York. The two smaller panels, "Immigration" and "Central Park," extend the impression of color and variety. In each panel can be found the symbol of the Post Office which is an important factor in binding together the complex elements of the Metropolis.
Note on the Artist
Kindred McLeary was born in Weimer, Texas, December 3, 1901. He studied architecture at the University of Texas and was a student at the Fountainbleau School of Fine Arts in France. From Jacques Carlu, the French architect he received his first stimulus toward mural painting. He assisted in the Zeigfeld Theatre ceiling decorations and murals for a Boston Hotel. Mr. McLeary is now an instructor in Carnegie Institute. His other work for the Section of Fine Arts includes murals for the new War Department Building (won in competition), the Pittsburgh Post Office and Court House, and the South Norwalk, Connecticut Post Office.
The aim of the Section of Fine Arts is to secure murals and sculpture of distinguished quality appropriate to the embellishment of Federal Buildings. Approximately 1% of the total limit of cost of the buildings is reserved for this decoration. The Section holds open anonymous competitions, national, state or local, to which all citizen artists of the United States are eligible. A different jury of painters or sculptors, unattached to the Section, judges each competition. The jury members are selected on the basis of experience and knowledge. They are called upon to judge the intrinsic quality of the painting or the sculpture and its relationship to its setting.