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Conroe Post Office Mural
By Larry Foerster and Steven Muir


Photo Courtesy of Shirley and Robert Meadows ca 1936.

 

On Aug 17, 2020, 10:43 AM Larry Foerster  wrote:
"To some of you “Oldtimers” in Conroe, do you happen to know what happened to the mural that was painted inside the old Conroe post office built in the mid-1930’s?

The building was located on today’s Conroe city hall but was later torn down.  The Conroe post office was one of many built during that time that had a large mural painted in its lobby.   Some of these murals around the country were saved.  I assume that the mural depicting a scene in Texas would have been destroyed with the building but perhaps it was saved." 

 

Photo Courtesy of Montgomery County Historical Commission

Photo Courtesy of Montgomery County Historical Commission ca 1935

 

It appears that the mural was lost when the old post office was torn down to make room for a 6-story First National Bank Building in the 1970's which is today Conroe City Hall.

Steve Muir, one of our County Historical Commission members, has provided the following information about the Conroe Post Office Mural.  It appears from the following Smithsonian Institute links that Nicholas Lyon was the painter and had been trained at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. He was commissioned by the Fine Arts Section of the U S Treasury Department to do the small mural at the Post Office. 
 

The research that we have done gave us the following information:


"Early Texans" from study of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

 

The artist for the mural was Nicholas Lamont, AKA Lonnie Nicholas Lamont Jr. or Lonnie Nocholas Lamont.  He was trained at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  He was commissioned to paint the mural at the Conroe Post Office in 1937-38 by the Section of Fine Arts (now a part of the US Treasury).  The work was entitled "Early Texans" and is now lost or destroyed.  The study for the mural is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Below are links to information on the work and another painting by Lyon:

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/
painting-woman-texas-landscape-deal-1800032781

 

https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/early-texans-mural-study-conroe-texas-post-office-15319
 

https://womenshistory.si.edu/object/early-texans-mural-study-conroe-texas-post-office%3Asaam_1974.28.26
 

Lyon supervised a Frank L. Lamont (native of Beaumont)  who painted the portraits of Sam Houston, Travis, Crockett, and Ben Milam that hang in CISD schools named after them.  They were WPA projects that were given to the community and then hung in the schools.  He signed the painting F L Lamont.
 

The artist who did that project was based out of the HMFA.  He supervised the portraits of Sam Houston, Travis, Stephen F. Austin and Crockett that were given to CISD.

 
 
 

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