Walter Gardner Sites

The historic Honesdale post office houses an impressive set of New Deal murals. The works, respectively titled "Canal Boat," "Clearing the Wilderness," "Coal," "Gravity Railroad," and "Visit by Washington Irving," were installed by artist Walter Gardner in 1937, under the auspices of the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). Each oil-on-canvas panel depicts a scene from local history. The murals occupy three walls of the customer lobby, including the space above and around the front entrance to the building. The Wayne Independent, Jan. 1937 (article copied/typewritten in display panel at P.O.): The walls of the lobby of the Honesdale Post Office have been decorated...

"Philadelphia artist Walter Gardner (1902-1996) painted “The Streets of Philadelphia” in 1937 for the Spring Garden Post Office, one of many across the country built as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.  The painting depicts a bustling street scene with workers unloading goods in front of the Merchant Exchange on Dock Street.  Murals like this one represent an important chapter in American history, when federal policies encouraged the production of art “for the masses” to combat the economic and social challenges wrought by the Great Depression.  Gardner was an English-born painter who emigrated to Philadelphia as a teenager and studied...