“The Life of the Senecas,” painted by Stuart Carson Edie in 1942, overlooks the post office boxes inside the Honeoye Falls Post Office on West Main Street. This New Deal–era mural celebrates the daily life of the Seneca people—longtime stewards and hunters of this region before the Revolutionary War—with scenes of traditional life. Sentinel Photo
Most folks walk past it without a second thought. Some admire its Colonial charm, much like many similarly styled post offices erected during that era, and a few may even glance at the mural inside. But almost no one knows the true story—one mounted on canvas and painted with pride. This is not ancient lore or distant myth. This structure is real history, built in the lifetime of our parents and grandparents—and still standing stoically today in the heart of Honeoye Falls. What is it? It’s the remarkable tale of how a national crisis inspired a local landmark—and the quiet treasure within it.
When the Great Depression gripped the United States in the 1930s, Americans faced not only widespread unemployment but also a deep erosion of public confidence. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal sought to reverse both by putting Americans back to work while investing in public infrastructure—including a wave of new post offices in towns across the country.
One such project took root in Honeoye Falls.
As early as August 1937, federal appropriations earmarked $70,000 for the construction of a new post office in the village—one of many across New York State to benefit from this public works initiative. But planning and paperwork took time, and it wasn’t until January 1941 that the federal Public Buildings Administration gave the go-ahead to contractor Smythe & Co. of Takoma Park, Maryland. The company was instructed to complete the building within 330 days.
Soon after, Clarence R. Rogers, the supervising engineer, arrived in town to oversee the work. In February, Harry Sylvester of the contracting firm took up residence with the William and Millicent Despard family on Monroe Street, making the project a true community affair.
By April, construction was in full swing—literally blasting through the rocky foundation under what had once been the St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church, itself a longtime landmark. As the spring thaw gave way to warmer weather, Earl Broomfield of Mendon laid storm sewers across North Main Street to carry runoff to Honeoye Creek, and excavation crews completed the foundation by mid-May. Steel, bricks, and a 40-foot flagpole followed, and by summer’s end the edifice took its final form.
The new post office opened its doors on Saturday, November 29, 1941—just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor would thrust the nation into World War II. The grand structure on West Main Street replaced the cramped quarters the post office had occupied for 21 years in the Masonic Temple building. The American flag flew proudly over the new lawn for the first time that Saturday morning, fittingly hoisted by clerk Lyle Kreiger.
Inside, patrons were greeted by a striking combination of function and form: terrazzo floors, marble wainscoting, indirect lighting, and oak paneling. The lobby included writing desks, drop boxes, and 432 lockboxes. Postmaster Joseph N. Peck’s office was outfitted with a taupe rug and a mahogany desk—befitting a building that mirrored a nation’s quiet determination to rebuild.
But it wasn’t just bricks and mortar in its Colonial design that made this building a monument. It was also art. Specifically, a mural that has graced the interior practically from the beginning—a quiet but powerful tribute to the region’s Seneca inhabitants, who lived nearby, hunting, fishing, and cultivating these lands before the Revolutionary War.
Titled “The Life of the Senecas,” the mural was painted in 1942 by artist Stuart Carson Edie, a New Deal muralist born in 1908. This artwork was commissioned under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, a federal program separate from the better-known Works Progress Administration. While the WPA focused on providing widespread employment, the Section aimed to fund high-quality public art that could uplift the national spirit during hard times.
Some examples of New Deal post office art include “The Arrival of the First Letter—Hudson River Valley,” by Henry Billings. Displayed within the Poughkeepsie, NY, Post Office, it offers a sweeping Hudson River landscape depicting early colonial mail routes. Being in FDR’s own backyard had personal significance to the President.
On the other side of the country, a mural called “The Building of the San Gabriel Mission” remains on the wall of the post office in San Gabriel, California. Fletcher Martin’s artwork celebrates the Spanish mission system in California. This mural represents an iconic image of regional history and remains in place today.
Right here in Honeoye Falls, Edie’s mural is an oil-on-canvas piece installed directly in the post office lobby. It presents scenes from the everyday life of the Seneca Nation, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy whose homeland once encompassed the very land where Honeoye Falls now stands. Rather than relying on romanticized or exotic portrayals, Edie depicted the Senecas with dignity—farming, harvesting, cooking, and living in harmony with their environment.
A preparatory study for the mural, titled “Iroquois,” is now held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. That study, rendered in tempera and pencil, offers a glimpse into Edie’s process and intention. It reveals a desire to honor Native culture not through caricature, but through everyday reality—a radical notion for public art in the 1940s.
Why was such a mural chosen for Honeoye Falls?
The answer lies in the purpose of the Treasury Section: To connect public spaces with local identity. For this small Western New York village, that meant remembering the Seneca people, who lived in nearby towns and villages and hunted these lands immediately prior to and during the colonial era. By selecting this theme, the federal government honored the region’s roots—and placed them at the very heart of civic life.
While the Seneca did not establish a permanent village within the bounds of present-day Honeoye Falls, they regularly hunted and traveled through the region in the years before the American Revolution. A century earlier and a few miles to the north stood Totiakton, a major Seneca town located in the great bend of Honeoye Creek.
In July 1687, during the Beaver Wars—a series of 17th-century conflicts between Iroquois and Algonquin alliances, each supported by competing European powers—French forces led by Governor Denonville attacked and destroyed Totiakton. After defeating the Seneca, the French raised their standard and claimed the land for Louis XIV of France. Although the Seneca eventually reestablished themselves elsewhere, the destruction of Totiakton marked a key episode in the long contest for control of this region.
The building of the Honeoye Falls Post Office was no grand political spectacle. There was no official ribbon-cutting, no public ceremony when the building opened. The move took place quietly, with little fanfare—just local postal workers carting from the previous location stacks of ledgers, mailbags, canceling machines, and even the typewriter across town on a cold November day.
And yet, 84 years later, the structure still stands, still serves, and still tells its story.
It relates the story of a nation trying to recover—first from economic despair, then from global war. It tells the story of how federal investment in small towns strengthened local pride. And through “The Life of the Senecas,” it tells a deeper story—one that stretches back centuries and reminds us that history didn’t begin with us. It began with the land and our neighbors in history who once called it home.
So the next time you drop a letter or mail a parcel in the West Main Street post office, pause a moment.
Look up at the walls above the postal boxes.
Look at the mural and imagine the story it tells.
And remember: History isn’t just something you read about in books. It’s right there in your backyard.
