The Ely Post Office

The Federal Building or Post Office was built during the Great Economic Depression in 1938 by the U.S. Treasury Department. It was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal projects. It cost $85,200 and was completed in 330 days by the Mads-Madsen Construction Firm from Minneapolis.   The outside dimensions of the main building are 84 feet by 63 feet. Today, the main floor provides post office space, and the lobby is open to the public. There is also a basement used for post office storage and mechanical functions.  The upper floor has eight offices. These were initially used for federal activities.  They now are rented to private businesses.  

The main floor has an 1800 square foot lobby and a 2500 square foot workroom with segregated space for the ‘financial’ services. There is also a vault that was used when large monetary transactions were often handled through the postal service. The postmaster’s office is on the main floor. 

On the mezzanine level, there is an employee ‘break room’ where carriers and other employees could ‘grab a few moments of rest during the day’. There was also an observation room for inspectors with windows overlooking the workroom. The observation room was accessed by a stairway from outside. This was considered an effective security measure in the 1930s.

The second floor initially housed other federal offices including the offices to support the Superior National Forest personnel and the U.S. customs officer.

The New Deal program that funded this building was implemented through a series of agencies including the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The WPA projects were intended to stimulate the economy and provide jobs when the United States unemployment rate reached a high of 25%.  This building was one of over 125,000 public buildings, constructed as part of the WPA program.

The New Deal also included an arts program. The two impressive murals in the Post Office Lobby were part of that program. The purpose of the art program was broader than the WPA effort. It was started, not so much to provide jobs, but instead to boost the morale of the people suffering from the Great Depression. President Roosevelt wanted

“…. art that was native, human, eager and alive – all of it painted for the people of this country by their own kind in their own country and painted about things they know and look at often and have touched and loved.” 

Artists competed anonymously in regional and national contests.  After receiving a commission, the artist was encouraged to consult with the local postmaster and other townspeople to ensure the subject would be meaningful.

Elsa Jemne was the artist who painted the murals in Ely’s Post Office lobby.  Ms. Jemne was born in St Paul in 1887 and attended the St Paul Institute, now the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She was a landscape painter, a portraitist, a muralist, and an illustrator. She studied in the U.S. and in Europe. While in Italy, she became familiar with fresco painting techniques.

The murals in the Post Office are called “Wilderness” and “Iron Ore Mines”. When Ms. Jemne came to Ely to research the project, she visited the Pioneer Mine and rode the cage to the 13^th level to better understand the mine work and the underground environment.

She painted other murals well-known throughout the region, including works at the Hutchinson Post Office, the Stearns County Courthouse, the Minneapolis Armory, and the Ladysmith Wisconsin Post Office.   Most of her non-public work is privately owned and little of it can be seen publicly today.

Her work in Ely took a year to complete between November 1939 and November 1940.

In 2015, more than 1000 Post Offices across the U.S. continued to display the art developed during the Great Depression – art that was created for the American people and by American people to enjoy as they went about their daily lives.

about.USPS.com

thelivingnewdeal.org/us/mn/ely-mn/

The Ely Miner, Ely Mn (1936, 1937, 1938).

Minnesota Monthly November 1997

Britannica.com

cnbc.com