Gloucester City Hall

Gloucester City Hall has, according to the Mass Cultural Council, the best collection of Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) murals in Massachusetts. The W.P.A. was started in 1935 to help provide economic relief due to the depression. The Federal Art Project (F.A.P.) was one of the divisions of the W.P.A. It was the F.A.P., which provided the widest reach, creating over 5,000 jobs for artists and producing over 225,000 works of art for the American people. The WPA was a federal government program that employed vast numbers of people throughout the country. Federal money during the Great Depression of the 1930s was spent for everything from the creation of guidebooks and public murals to dredging and wall construction. Gloucester had its share such as painting the murals in City Hall. Frederick Mulhaupt painted two large murals in 1936: “Build Not For Today Alone, But For Tomorrow As Well” in the Auditorium and “Landing of Dorchester Colonists, 1623” in the main floor hallway. Also in 1936, Oscar Anderson painted the ship and small boat mural in the Mayor’s secretary office. In 1939, Charles Allan Winter painted “Civic Virtues” on the main floor hallway.