Area less than one acre NRHP Reference # 98000923 Added to NRHP 14 August 1998 | Built 1938 (1938) Opened 1938 | |
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Location 206 N. Elm St., Paris, Arkansas MPS Post Offices with Section Art in Arkansas MPS Architectural style Colonial Revival architecture | ||
The Paris Post Office is located at 206 North Elm Street in downtown Paris, Arkansas. It is located in a modest Colonial Revival building, built in 1937 as part of a major federal building project. It is notable for the controversy over its interior artwork, which was funded by the Treasury Department's Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and executed by Joseph P. Vorst. The murals proposed by Vorst depicted a raggedly dressed African-American with several skinny mules, approaching a tarpaper shack that appears to be the man's home. There was public outcry, with Vorst defending the depiction as an accurate rendition of the area during a visit he made. He then submitted an alternate drawing, which showed a stock farm, cotton gin, and other more benign imagery, which was accepted.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.