Spencer Post Office & “Pastoral of Spencer”

The Spencer Post Office is a typical Works Progress Administration (WPA) structure. Completed in 1936, the building is single-story, roughly square, and made with brick. The Spencer Post Office differentiates itself from other WPA post office buildings in West Virginia through its height, which is closer to a story and a half. The lobby of the building features a plaster of Paris relief created by Vicken von Post Totten. Post Totten was a Swedish artist famous for her sculptures and reliefs. She created WPA patronized works that are installed in public buildings throughout the United States. The piece in Spencer, titled “Pastoral of Spencer,” was completed and installed in 1938. Through bas relief, the work depicts cows grazing in a meadow. This was a historically common theme in pastoral images, though Post Totten modernized the composition slightly through the inclusion of an electric tower in the background.

Lorance, Nancy. New Deal/WPA Art in Spencer, West Virginia, WPA Murals. Accessed July 21st 2021. http://wpamurals.org/SpencrWV.htm.

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

Post Office Relief - Spencer WV, The Living New Deal. Accessed July 21st 2021. https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/post-office-relief-spencer-wv/.

Post Office - Spencer WV, The Living New Deal. Accessed July 21st 2021. https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/post-office-spencer-wv/.

Spencer Post Office, New Deal Art Registry. Accessed July 21st 2021. https://www.newdealartregistry.org/map/Spencer/WV/#.

Vicken von Post Totten, AskArt. Accessed July 21st 2021. https://www.askart.com/artist_keywords/Vicken_von_Post_Totten/10054397/Vicken_von_Post_Totten.aspx.