Ohio Post Offices

ADDRESS: 597 High Street, Worthington, Ohio 43085
ARTIST: Vernon Thorwald Carlock (Vernon T. Carlock)
TITLE: Scioto County Settler?
MEDIUM: Terra-cotta (relief)
STATUS: The Worthington post office is still an active, operating facility, and the relief can be viewed by interested members of the public. It resides in the lobby on the wall near the south entrance/side entrance.
YEAR: 1939

The newer sign above the front entrance is ugly for this historic building. The remodel done in the past also took away the charm and character of the building.

Sometimes buildings should just be left alone. Cleaned up but otherwise left alone. This is one of those cases where it would have been better to leave the existing building as it was meant to be.

Add the addition and all the new updates per regulatory requirements, but leave the old building alone and put the relief where it was meant to be. Ok, I’m done venting now.

David W. Gates Jr.

Update:

Readers should be aware the title of this one may be titled incorrectly. The Democratic Vista’s book. Park & Markowitz list the title as: Scioto Company Settler, where the original photographed pulled from the National Archives list the title as Scioto County Settler. What is the official title? We’ll need to investigate further, but the artist may have intended the title to reference the founders who were known as the Scioto Company. Interesting indeed.

Follow me for more interesting discoveries and post office mural facts, figures and celebrations.

Sources

• Personal visit on 10/27/2022 at 9:46 AM by David W. Gates Jr.
• United States Postal Service
• (affiliate link) Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal: [Hardcover]  Marlene Park, Gerald E. Markowitz
• Worthington Memory Vernon Carlock Post Office Sculpture | Worthington Memory