Post Office Mural

Sketch for Post Office Mural (1940) by Alfred D. Crimi

Alfred D. Crimi (1900-1994) was born in San Fratello, Sicily in 1900 but immigrated to New York City's Lower East Side with his family in 1910, growing up in its Little Italy neighborhood. From an early age, Crimi exhibited great talent in art. By the age of 19, he decided to study art in Rome, soon excelling in art of fresco. On returning to the United States. he quickly became recognized as both a gifted frescoist and muralist. 

In 1940, Crimi was commissioned by the Department of the Treasury in conjunction with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to paint a mural depiciting Northampton's unique and significant history, which would be placed in Northampton's old Post Office building on Pleasant Street. 

This drawing is the prototype for that mural, which was in later years moved to the second floor of the Hampshire County Courthouse building on Main Street.

Note the doorway moldings at the bottom of the central panel. These were the doorways above which the mural would be placed in the Post Office building. 

This enormous sketch is divided into three panels.

In the middle left is Crimi's conception of the earliest English Northampton settlers (1654). It represents the value of hard work and perseverance. 

Depicted in the drawing's center and framed by the Third Meeting House of First Church (built 1737) are Jonathan and Sarah Edwards (the Great Awakening) with one of their sons, presumably Timothy. The theme is the virtue of faith and spirituality. 

At right is Charles Edward Forbes pictured with children in front of his magnificent endowment: the Forbes Library. Forbes' gift to the citizens of Northampton, a library where generations of people would advance in knowledge and culture if they were "disposed to learn", rounds out Crimi's third subject: the importance of being informed and well-educated. 

The panel at the far left is probably a sketch of Daniel Webster who came to Northampton to defend Oliver Smith (d.1845) probate case which he handily won, creating the Smith Charities and Smith Agricultural and Vocational High School. 

At righ is, Seth Pomeroy, Northampton's intrepid General of the War of Independence, a pivotal figure in early Connecticut Valley history.