Post Office Murals (destroyed) – Clarksville TN

Description

Artist F. Luis Mora painted “Arrival of the Renfro Family” and “Abundance of Today” in 1938 for what was then the Clarksville post office (now Federal Building). The two murals were placed in the lobby January 20, 1938 by the New York artist, assisted by Harry E. Brastead of the Southwest Decorating Company, Wichita, Kansas. Mora painted the murals in 4 months, and they were 12 feet by 5 feet each. Mora attributed the idea for the murals to reading the historical pageant of Clarksville, “Through the Mist of the Years” written by Rev. Arthur E. Whittle. One of the murals depicted the arrival of the Renfro family, and Colonel John Donaldson on the banks of the Cumberland River. The second mural depicted the agricultural, industrial, and business life of Clarksville as it was at the time of the painting. The mural showed factories, stores, farms, cotton and tobacco, with laborers. The Smithsonian American Art Museum depicts illustrations of the mural designs on their website, although the murals themselves were reported to have been destroyed (Van West, 2001).