This geocache is in lieu of a virtual cache for this historic work of art and building.
Back in 1937/38 a close friend of Franklin Roosevelt named George Biddle (pictured at left) shared a vision with the President that was inspired by his having seen the beautiful and moving murals of Mexico. Biddle felt that a program could be created that would put artists to work during the Depression and provide public access to inspiring, high quality art that expressed idealized narratives of the local landscape and people. Hence the Works Project Administration was created as a part of F.D.R.’s New Deal.
The Department of the Treasury funded post office murals and there was a commitment to hire high relatively unknown, high quality artists to create inspiring murals in every region of the country. Chelsea was fortunate enough to be chosen and there is a record of the correspondence between the postmaster, the Department of the Treasury, and the artist. Simple, brief, polite and thoughtful these letters are enjoyable to read given the complexity of details common today.
George Fisher was chosen to create the Chelsea Post office mural. He was born in Howell, Michigan but lived in Detroit. He had done ornamental religious art in some of the Catholic Churches in the Detroit area, completed a mural for Ferris College, two for hotels in California and became a technical illustrator for the Navy in WW II.
He did not use live models or photographs for his beautiful painting but came to Chelsea on many occasions and met with the Postmaster and they walked thru the town and landscape gently talking about the local history with the people they met. Fisher had been reading philosophy by the Chinese writer Lao Tze and was inspired by the fundamentals that he repeated as important to living a good and worthwhile life. Fisher titled his piece “Way of Life” as he thought the people and landscape of Chelsea represented those fundamentals. “At the heart of Chelsea is a way of life; work, rest, and love.”
The Chelsea Post Office building was built in 1936 toward the end of the Art Deco period. The corbelled brickwork provides a clean, simple design characteristic of the period. The three bas-relief stone sculptures along the top depict the three ways the U.S. Mail was transported at the time: rail, air, and ship. Unfortunately, as the Chelsea area has grown, the Post Office has outgrew this building and moved to a new site on South Main Street outside the downtown district.
On February 4, 2009, the Way of Life mural was removed from the lobby in preparation of the post office's move from this site. Reportedly, the Postal Service paid $22,000 to have the mural removed, preserved, and remounted to make it more portable.
The mural in now located in the new post office facility at 1101 South Main Street, which is very close to the Welcome to Chelsea (GC1DZ0C) geocache.
ALTERNATE LOGGING METHOD: If you are too short to reach the cache, you may send me an e-mail at Geoaddict@comcast.net with a picture of you pointing to the cache.
Way of Life historical information provided by River Gallery, 120 S Main Street, Chelsea, Michigan
Architectural history provided by Preservation Chelsea.
