During my research of the Texas Post Office Murals I was saddened to learn that the mural originally housed in the Mineola Post Office here in East Texas had been destroyed, so my quest for nearby murals continued on. Even the Texas State Historical Commission had listed the mural as missing in one of its brochures. Later while reading about various of the murals I ran across a mention on the Internet that the once lost mural had been found. At some point it had been relegated to the basement of the old post office and in 1998 when a new post office building was constructed the old post office building was purchased by the City of Mineola to be used as the Mineola Historical Museum. The mural, entitled "New and Old Methods of Transportation" by Bernard Zakheim was painted in 1938. The citizens of Mineola were instrumental in having the mural restored by Zakheim's son and grandson and today it hangs again proudly in the building for which it was created. Zakheim was paid $710 as a commission for the mural and the cost of its restoration was $49,000.
The mailbox room.
The post office as it stands today.
Mineola is a quiet little town in East Texas with a population of 4,500. It is 80 miles east of Dallas, 220 miles north of Houston, and 670 miles northeast of the Mariscal Mine on the Mexican border in the Big Bend Country of West Texas.
10 comments:
Portland's PO has a couple of historical murals too.
I like the mural. I see that those horses are very frightened by that big train head their way. Smart horses.
glad they found it but OMG on the 49,000 restoration..
It seems strange that they would have removed it but at least it was kept so that it could be restored. I wonder what Zakheim would have thought of that $49,000 price tag for the restoration.
i've never been there, but my neighbor's sister lives there so she heads over a lot of times.
That name sounds so familiar- I think I have been through here once before, but I don't remember much about it. I'm glad they found the mural, but I am still unsure how it got lost..I will have to read the story again. Have a super week!
Interesting story about the mural. All I remember on the walls of the little town I grew up in was wanted posters .Everyone stood around waiting for the mail to be put up in the boxes catching up on the latest gossip.
I love those old mailboxes.
All of those post office murals are treasures and should be preserved. I need to find those MN murals you posted months ago. Gotta do some research!
It sure was expensive to restore but totally worth it! Fabulous that it was found and that someone cared enough!
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