'Conquistadors Discover the Pacific,' and 'Monks Building the Mission'

In 1941 Anton Refreger was paid $26,000 by the WPA to make murals in San Francisco's Rincon Post Office on Spear Street. I visited it today and took pictures of the wonderful murals, which trace the state's history from the Indians to the World Wars.

These two murals are numbers four and five. Notice in them the MASSIVE hands of the people--something found in all of Refreiger's murals.

Here is the provided description in the post office, which is actually now a food court, not a post office.

4. Conquistadors Discover the Pacific: "Baja California was discovered in 1533 by Fortun Jimenez of the Cortes Expedition. By 1540, Ulloa, another member of that expedition, had explored the Sea of Cortes. Also in that year, Hernando de Alarcon sailed up the Colorado River and in 1541, Francisco de Bolanos explored both sides of the Baja peninsula. The first European to explore Alta California, the land above the Bajapeninsula, was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who sailed to the Santa Barbara Islands in 1543.'

5. Monks Building the Mission: "Mission San Francisco de Asis, named for the founder of the Franciscan order, St. Francis of Assisi, is popularly know as Mission Dolores. That name comes from a stream named Arroyo de los Dolores originally on the property. That stream and its adjoining lake were filled in years ago. Mission Dolores, the sixth of California's 21 missions, was founded in 1776 by a missionary named Palou. The chapel that stands today was completed in 1791 and restored in 1917 by architect Willis Polk."

Part of my trip to Rincon Center. For more on New Deal Post Office murals, check out this website: http://www.parmaconservation.com/newdealpostoffic.html