The United States Post Office Coalgate is a post office in

Coalgate, Oklahoma Coalgate is a city in and the county seat of Coal County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,967 at the 2010 census, a 1.9 percent decrease from the figure of 2,005 recorded in 2000. The town was founded in 1889 in the Choctaw Nation, ...

. It contains a mural, ''Women Making Pishafa'', painted by artist

Acee Blue Eagle Acee Blue Eagle (17 August 1907 – 18 June 1959) was a Native American artist, educator, dancer, and Native American flute player,Wyckoff, 92 who directed the art program at Bacone College. His birth name was Alexander C. McIntosh, he also we ...

( Muscogee, ca. 1907–1959). The post office is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.State Historic Preservation Office: Oklahoma Historical Societ
''Oklahoma's National Register Handbook''
April 1, 2015. Accessed July 2, 2015.

History

Coalgate's plans to build new post office were approved by the federal government in 1937. A

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

program, the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, required that a portion of the money designated for the construction of federal buildings be used to pay for artists to decorate them. The post office was completed in 1940. The federal government commissioned Muscogee Creek artist

to paint a mural, which he completed in 1942.McLerran, Jennifer. ''A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy, 1933-1943'', University of Arizona Press: Tucson, Arizona, 2009. p. 266. The post office is one of only three in Oklahoma to have a mural painted directly onto its plaster wall. Blue Eagle was a significant Native American painter who founded the art program at Bacone College and helped create the

Bacone school The Bacone school or Bacone style of painting, drawing, and printmaking is a Native American intertribal "Flatstyle" art movement, primarily from the mid-20th century in Eastern Oklahoma and named for Bacone College. This art movement bridges hist ...

of Flatstyle painting. The post office is significant because it is representative of historic New Deal politics, government, and art, and the post office and mural together show how a local New Deal project was realized. The post office was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Architecture

The post office's supervising architect was

Louis A. Simon Louis Adolphe Simon (1867–1958) was an American architect. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Simon was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architectural office in Baltimore, M ...

. The building is in the Art Moderne style with a flat roof and an asymmetrical front. While the entrance to the building is centered, the four large windows around it are not, with two to the left, one to the right, one above the entrance, and an additional smaller window on the far right side of the building. The name of the building is off-center and is instead centered over the four large windows. The building's exterior is in buff-colored brick with occasional darker orange-shaded bricks. The entrance to the I-shaped lobby is through a wood-and-glass-enclosed vestibule, with service bays on the wall opposite the entrance.

''Women Making Pishafa''

The mural is located above the door to the postmaster's office. Blue Eagle used

distemper Distemper may refer to: Illness *A viral infection **Canine distemper, a disease of dogs **Feline distemper, a disease of cats ** Phocine distemper, a disease of seals *A bacterial infection **Equine distemper, or Strangles, a bacterial infectio ...

and acrylics to paint the mural. The painting is an example of the style known as

, a form of Flatstyle painting, popular among Native artists in the early to mid-20th century. Painted directly onto the plaster wall of the building, ''Women Making Pishafa'' depicts people preparing pashofa, a flint corn soup that is made by Muscogee Creeks and other Southeastern tribes. A woman on the right side of the painting pounds corn into cornmeal. In the center, two women separate the corn husk from the corn pulp. A table behind them is set with bowls and a coffee pot, which shows that pashofa can be a soup or a beverage. While the women work, a boy plays with a toy horse, and a man on the left side of the painting shoots an arrow at a flock of birds overhead. During 1964 renovations to the post office interior, dust and dirt damaged the painting.

Fred Beaver Fred Beaver (2 July 1911 – 18 August 1980) was a prominent Muscogee Creek-Seminole painter and muralist from Oklahoma.Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters.'' Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Pre ...

( Seminole/ Muscogee, 1911–1980, restored the mural.

References

{{NRHP in Coal County, Oklahoma Coal County, Oklahoma Government buildings completed in 1940 National Register of Historic Places in Coal County, Oklahoma Native American painting Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Streamline Moderne architecture in the United States