Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center: Gates Mural – Bethesda MD

City:
Bethesda, MD

Site Type:
Art Works, Murals

New Deal Agencies:
Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)

Started:
1939

Completed:
1939

Artist:
Robert F. Gates

Quality of Information:
Very Good

Marked:
Yes

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

Robert F. Gates painted the mural, “Montgomery County Farm Women’s Market,” in 1939 for the Bethesda post office, which was closed in 2012. It shows a woman feeding animals next to women selling produce at the Farm Women’s Market, which opened on Wisconsin Avenue in 1932.  

The mural was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Robert Gates later became head of the Art Department at American University.

In 1938, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department to look at the sketches of the Gates mural. She later wrote in her diary the sketch was “charming,” and “I think these post offices are making the country more and more conscious of decorative, artistic values.””   (https://www.bethesdanow.com) 

When the old Bethesda post office building was closed and privatized in 2012, the mural spent 17 months in storage. According to Center Director Ken Hartman, who previously worked with the United States Postal Service, the mural was restored and then installed in the county’s Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center in December 2013.

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Source notes

https://www.bethesdanow.com/2013/12/04/bethesda-post-office-mural-to-reemerge-at-regional-center/

 

Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on May 11, 2012.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.

Location Info


4805 Edgemoor Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814
Montgomery County

Coordinates: 38.9854, -77.0960

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