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Postal service to save mural in former Bay post office
By EDITH BIERHORST BACK
HANCOCK COUNTY BUREAU CHIEF
■	BAY ST. LOUIS — Postal officials say that the Depression-era mural in the former Bay St. Louis Post Office on Main Street will be saved.
. “We don’t have all the details worked out yet,” Postal Service spokesman Michael Miles said. “But there are no plans to abandon the mural, and we are looking at the cost of moving it" to the new post office on Highway 90.
A number of history buffs and civic organizations have made a plea for restoring the mural and keeping it in the city, preferably on a wall of the new building.
The painting, entitled “Life on the Coast” was done in 1938 by the late Louis Raynaud, commissioned by the Works Progress Admistration to paint murals in a number of post offices in the South during the Depression. The Bay St. Louis mural is painted on canvas and glued to the wall, so that it can be removed.
The mural supporters, led by Nancy Gex of Waveland, invited restoration expert Phyllis Hudson of New Orleans to see the painting and determine whether it could be repaired and moved.
After Hudson agreed that the work was possible, the next step was to get approval of postal authorities to move
it and possibly pay some of the cost.
Local postmaster Thomas Hil passed the request on together with his own endorsement to the regional office in Memphis.
Da Ree Odom of the Postal Service Real Estate Division is checking whether restoration and moving the mural was part of the original bid proposals on the new post office. Miles said. But Hill said later that he is certain that it was not.
But Odom said: “You can assure the people there that we will never abandon the mural. ”
If the Postal Service pays for the work, estimated by Hudson at $3,250, it is likely that it would need to be advertised for bidders, adding to delays.
If the service agrees to assign responsibility for the mural to the local citizens group, the work could proceed and be paid for with local contributions, Hill said.
Gex said that she has received several donations and promises of assistance from a number of civic groups, and the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce has created a “Save the Mural Fund” to handle all donations.
Other donations include an offer of Mark Mason, who restores old houses, to provide any scaffolding needed, and framing from commercial framers.