The Daily Bulletin had a Will Bigham article today about Claremont Heritage's efforts to have the Claremont Post Office placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is most noted for its mural, painted in 1937, by Claremont artist Milford Zornes. The mural rings the post office's lobby and depicts scenes from the Pomona Valley of the 1930's.
Claremont Post Office Mural Detail, Milford Zornes, 1937
Zornes, who is 99, was a student at Pomona College and studied under Millard Sheets. Zornes is a watercolorist of the California School and has gained wide renown for his work. The mural is a Works Projects Administration piece and is remarkable for its attention to detail. The north wall shows the mountains, including Mt. San Antonio (Mt. Baldy); on the east wall, above the clerks' counter, you can see Bridges Auditorium; and so on. Scattered throughout are shots of everyday life: a Mexican couple, a worker driving a tractor, a farmer leading a team of plough horses with heads like carved chess knights.
Great artists have the ability to capture the essence of a thing, and Zornes is no different. When I think of certain trees, I think of Zornes' mural with its long, bendy eucalyptuses and their papery barks or his silvery-green olive trees.
Zornes restored the mural in the 1990's, and its still in pretty good shape today. How often can you so clearly see the arc of a life? There is Zornes' signature on the mural with the year - 1937. There he is in today's Bulletin.
For a brief biography and a sample of Zornes' watercolors, see the CalArt.com website.
Claremont Post Office
140 North Harvard Ave. (at 2nd St.)
Claremont, CA
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