Post offices with honor plaques.

Flora Illinois Post Office

July 19, 2014 By David W. Gates Jr.

ADDRESS: 312 East North Avenue, Flora, Illinois, 62839
ARTIST: Davenport Griffen
TITLE: Good News and Bad
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas (mural)
STATUS: The Flora post office is still an active, operating facility and the mural can be viewed by interested members of the public. It resides in the lobby on the wall above the postmaster’s door.
YEAR: 1937

Welcome to another Illinois post office. Today we head a little southeast to the town of Flora. I’ll be honest I’m not quite sure what to make of this mural. I’m delighted to be able to see this in person and I’m happy to see it has not been destroyed or modified as far as I can tell.

Another great building that has a plane, train, and ship on the front facade of the building. We have seen this on many post offices through-out Illinois and other states. The Flora post office has also been named in honor of Robert T. Ferguson. Here is what I’ve discovered after performing a little research.

WHEREAS, In honor of his many years of service to the U.S. Postal Service and to his community, the post office building in Flora was renamed the Robert T. Ferguson Post Office Building; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, by the house of representative of the ninety-fourth general assembly of the state of Illinois, that we congratulate Robert T. Ferguson on the occasion of the dedication of the Robert T. Ferguson Post Office Building; …

In regards to the mural, to me it seems a little unfinished. What I mean is; there is lack of detail that tends to make me feel as though it wasn’t completed. Take for instance the two people sitting on the far right of the mural. The faces are missing mouths. It’s almost like the artist was in a hurry and decided to omit the details.

Another observation is the lack of detail in the clothing of the characters in the painting. I would expect to see some sort of pattern for the fabric of the shirts, pants and dresses. However, the artists omits these and uses plain clothing. Not even buttons or collars are noticeable. While these may be intentional, I’m left wondering if this was the artists first painting or just his “Style”. Either way, it leaves the viewer questing and maybe that’s the point too.

Another though is that maybe these two characters the ones he was trying to convey the “Bad” news. Maybe by not painting the mouths on the two people he is conveying a look of dismay or disappointment. It’s hard to tell but these are some of the thoughts that went throughout my head as I was observing and photographing it. I have been a bit critical in my review of this one, but rest assured it is still a treasure and Flora is lucky to have it.

What do you think of this mural? What jumps out to you when you view it? What do you see of don’t see that leaves you asking questions?

Thanks,

David W. Gates Jr.

Flora Illinois Post Office Mural 62839 Detail

Flora Illinois Post Office Mural 62839 Center

Flora Illinois Post Office Mural 62839 Full

Flora Illinois Post Office Mural 62839 Signature

Flora Illinois Post Office 62839 Cornerstone

Flora Illinois Post Office 62839 Honor Plaque

Sources

Personal visit on 6/19/2014 by David W. Gates Jr.
Illinois Post Office Mural Guidebook
United States Postal Service
Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal: [Hardcover] Marlene Park, Gerald E. Markowitz
Let’s Look for Mail Delivery in Illinois Post Offices: [Soft Cover] Mary Emma Thompson, PH. D.
Chicago Modern
Parma Conservation
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Art Institute of Chicago

Marshall Michigan Post Office

February 13, 2014 By David W. Gates Jr.

ADDRESS: 202 E. Michigan Ave., Marshall, Michigan 49068

Do I have a story for you? This one is exciting and totally unexpected. My wife planned a surprise for me and never told me where I was going one weekend in November of 2013. As it turns out we ended up in Marshall, Michigan. Can you guess why? Do any of you know what is in Marshall? Have you heard of this? I have to tell you I only read about this a year ago. To be honest I almost forgot about it. So as a birthday surprise my wife planned a tour with Michael Schagg himself.

Update, February 11, 2014

With all the excitement of the holiday’s I forgot to publish the Marshall, Michigan post office. I was so excited to write-up my Marshall Michigan Museum visit that I completely overlooked the actual Marshall post office. So now that its freezing cold here in the Chicago-Land area and not much else do but work inside, I’ve been doing some house cleaning and sifting through my stuff. I realized I never posted this one so here I am doing some clean up and getting to all those “To do” items that seem to escape me now and then.

Thanks for stopping by

David W. Gates Jr.

Sources

Personal visit on11/9/2013 by David W. Gates Jr.
United States Postal Service

US Postal Service Museum Marshall Michigan

December 25, 2013 By David W. Gates Jr.

ADDRESS: 202 E. Michigan Ave., Marshall, Michigan 49068

WOW!!! and Merry Christmas to everyone!

I don’t know where to begin, there is so much to revel about our recent trip to Marshall Michigan. This has got to be the highlight of the year for us and something I’m extremely anxious to share with you.

First of all this was a total surprise to me, I had no idea we were going to be visiting Marshall. My wife planned this trip as a birthday surprise and kept it quiet until we arrived in Marshall. Naturally since it was a surprise, I was not prepared for what we were going to be seeing or doing. But what we saw and discovered was something quite amazing. Not only is the Marshall Michigan Post Office a great old building with tons of character, but it also houses the second largest Postal Museum. Way cool! I’m actually speechless and at a loss words to describe what we saw. I had no idea so much stuff could be all in one place to look at. I was actually sort of in a bit of a shock and really just sort of went along with the tour as I was totally unprepared for the “information overload”.

So that was the reason for getting me up extra early that weekend in November I mumbled to myself as we parked and headed inside. Once inside we met Mr Schragg himself for our personal tour of his US Postal Museum. And when I say awesome, I do mean awesome!. I though I was a huge fan of the Postal Service but what Mr. Schragg has done takes being a fan off the charts. As the former postmaster of Marshall Michigan Post Office, he has accumulated an array of artifacts and memorabilia that is worthy of a king’s ransom.

My wife and I first read an article about a year ago in the newspaper about this museum in Michigan. To be honest I had completely forgotten about it until our trip in November. If you want so see anything, and I mean just about anything related to the postal services history you’ve got to visit Michael Schragg’s US Postal Museum in Marshall Michigan.

I also need to publicly thank Mr. Schragg for taking the time out of your day to show us your awesome! museum. What you have done to preserve the history of our postal service deserves recognition and praise. I hope you enjoy just a small sample of what you will discover if you visit Michael Schragg’s US Postal Museum in Marshall. I know I could have spent a weekend here and still not have seen everything there is.

Have you visited his museum? What did you think? Were you as overwhelmed as I was? What did you like best about it? What interesting fact or piece artifact stuck out the most for you? Please comment below and let us know what you think.

Thanks,

David W. Gates Jr.