Oak Hill Post Office & “The Colonial Mail Rider”

The Oak Hill Post Office was constructed using treasury funding in 1936. It was one of the first publicly funded post offices in West Virginia as part of the New Deal. Many of the building’s architectural features, such as brick construction, a gabled roof, and elevated porch are common features of Works Progress Administration buildings. However, the Oak Hill Post Office also features a small cupola in the center of the roof, which helps keep the building’s profile from becoming lost in the grove of trees that surround it. On the interior of the Oak Hill Post Office is a terra cotta bas relief sculpted by Henri Crenier in 1938. Crenier was a French born artist who worked primarily in the United States. Many of his commissions were placed in or near civic buildings, though this work in Oak Hill appears to be the artist’s only WPA piece. The piece is titled “The Colonial Mail Rider,” though some sources record the name as “The Colonel Mail Rider.” The former title appears more apt, as the relief appears to depict a family sitting on the ground while a mail rider on a leaping horse gestures to them. Before the days of a centralized mail system, mail riders frequently undertook dangerous multi-week trips in order to deliver mail to the furthest reaches of colonial settlement. In this way, Crenier’s piece celebrates the history and dedication of the United States Postal Service’s forebears.

Henri Crenier, Free Journal. May 16th 2020. Accessed July 2nd 2021. https://amp.ww.en.freejournal.org/7812726/1/henri-crenier.html#article.

Lorance, Nancy. New Deal/WPA Art in Oak Hill, West Virginia, WPA Murals. Accessed July 2nd 2021. http://wpamurals.org/oakhill.htm.

Oak Hill Post Office, New Deal Art Registry. Accessed July 2nd 2021. https://www.newdealartregistry.org/map/OakHill/WV/#.

Park, Marlene. Markowitz, Gerald E. Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temple University Press, 1984.

Post Office - Oak Hill WV, The Living New Deal. Accessed July 2nd 2021. https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/post-office-oak-hill-wv/.

Post Office Relief, The Living New Deal. Accessed July 2nd 2021. https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/post-office-relief-oak-hill-wv/.