Geneva postal mural will be restored

“Fish Fry in the Park,” the mural that has graced a wall at the Geneva Post Office for more than 70 years, is getting a facelift.

An art restoration firm hired by the post office will spend Friday and Saturday taking down the 14-by-9-foot mural and putting a protective coat on it.

It will be shipped to a workshop in Chicago, where experts will scrape off debris and residue, reaffix parts flaking off the painting, fill in spots that are missing paint, put on a layer of sealer and attach it to new supports.

It will then be rehung in the post office on South Third Street.

Or, if that building gets sold, in whatever new post office is opened in Geneva, said Sean Hargadon, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Service has been trying to sell the building at 26 S. Third St. since June 2009. It wants to move to a smaller space.

The office was built in 1937.

The mural was painted by artist Manuel Bromberg in 1940 as part of a New Deal program during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, from 1934 to 1943. The murals, and 200 sculptures, were intended to boost the morale of the country during the Great Depression. Artists were instructed to consult with local residents and postmasters and paint “about things they know and have looked at often and touched and loved,” Roosevelt said.

Bromberg, an Iowa native, went on to serve as a combat artist with the Army in World War II, including participating in the invasion of Normandy at Omaha Beach. He went on to teach at North Carolina State University.

Nationwide, more than 1,150 murals survive.