Southwark Station Post Office Murals – Philadelphia PA

Description

Philadelphia’s historic Southwark Station post office contains two Section of Fine Arts murals by Robert E. Larter. The oil on canvas murals were painted in 1938 and entitled “Iron Plantation Near Southwark – 1800” and “Shipyards at Southwark – 1800.”

[Quote source information requested]:

In 1938, the Section of Fine Arts commissioned the 26 year old artist Robert E. Larter to paint two oil-on-canvas murals on opposite ends of the post office’s interior. They are respectively titled “Iron Plantation Near Southwark – 1800″ and “Shipyards at Southwark-1800.”

The shipyard mural is inaccessible to the public, since the post office built a wall of mailboxes two feet west from it. “Iron Plantation Near Southwark – 1800,” located at the west end of the post office, depicts the iron plantation industry in southeast Pennsylvania. It shows the process of smelting iron ore in a large brick furnace into pig iron, which is hauled onto the nearby carriage. There are no known iron plantations in the Southwark vicinity-the closest were in the Schuylkill Valley just north of Philadelphia. The architecture Larter depicts in the mural appears to be an amalgamation of mid-Atlantic ironmaster’s mansions, similar to those seen at Warwick Furnace, Joanna Furnace, Pine Forge, and Reading Furnace.

Southwark had many iron foundries in the 19th through early 20th century, which werecollapsing by the 1930s, laying off many community members. We can imagine that Larter and the Section leaders wanted to inspire hope in Philadelphia’s industry with a local history lesson for the Italian-American and Jewish immigrant communities that largely lived in Southwark.

Robert Larter, who went on to paint another mural in Kansas and teach art history at
Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Salem State University, notably appreciated the public aspect of the painting process, commenting that “one of the pleasures of the job…is the interest shown by the spectators.”