(rshsdepot) Bridgeport, CT

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From Sunday's Connecticut Post.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

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Industrial murals may be used in bus, train stations

JOEL THOMPSON jthompson_@_ctpost.com

BRIDGEPORT
Murals that once graced the offices of the Bridgeport Brass Co. may some day
decorate the waiting rooms of the city's proposed new bus and train
stations.
The murals, which celebrate workers, date to the 1940s and 1950s.
Stephen Tyliszczak, the city's special property coordinator in charge of
plans for the city's downtown intermodal transportation center, said he is
determining how the murals can be incorporated into the new $10 million bus
terminal and $45 million train station.
"Not all the murals will fit in the bus terminal, and so we can reserve some
for the train station," Tyliszczak said. "We'll figure out how many to use
in the final design process."

Current plans call for displaying the murals on the back wall of the bus
terminal's waiting room about 15 feet off the floor, so they can be viewed
easily and still be out of harm's way, he said.
Tyliszczak said plans will be finalized in coming months for the start of
construction on the new federal- and state-funded bus terminal on Water
Street this year, to replace the outmoded terminal on John Street.
But he added plans for the new train station may take a few years to come to
fruition, depending on the availability of federal funding.
The new bus terminal will have a much larger waiting room than the current
terminal. The new one will also feature 14 bays for city transit buses,
compared with eight at the current one, and three bays for commercial line
buses.
The overall project involves adding two parking decks for 500 cars onto the
garage at the Arena at Harbor Yard, at a cost of $6.3 million, to replace
the surface parking lot, where the bus terminal will be built. The garage
project will be paid for with money from the state Department of
Transportation.
Also, covered walkways, estimated to cost $3 million, will be built to
connect the bus terminal, train station and parking garage. The walkways
will be paid for with Federal Transit Administration funds.
The walkways are designed to support passengers who may use a combination of
transportation modes to reach their destinations, including cars, ferries,
trains or buses.
Jeffrey J. O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the Greater Bridgeport
Transit Authority, said the authority supports using the murals to decorate
the bus terminal waiting area, provided the cost does not impair the
facility, designed to serve as a local and regional transportation hub.
"Funding for purchasing and restoring the murals will be needed," O'Keefe
said. "If we can incorporate the murals in the design of the facility
without diminishing it, we will support their use."
Tyliszczak, however, said he was confident the cost of the murals can be
absorbed into the project.
He said similar murals, salvaged from the basement of the old Norwalk
Library before its demolition many years ago, were later displayed on the
walls of the offices of the Norwalk Transit District.
The Bridgeport Brass Co. murals, on the other hand, will be on the wall of
the city's new bus terminal for everyone to see, he said.
The development official said the city Museum of Art Science and Industry on
Park Avenue, now known as the Discovery Museum, obtained the murals and
related artwork in 1980 from the Bridgeport Brass Co.
The company, founded in 1865, made this donation when it closed its
factories in the city after its takeover by the National Distillers &
Chemical Co.
The murals recall the days when Bridgeport was a working man's city, full of
factories and jobs. Bridgeport Brass is one of many factories that closed or
moved away over the past 30 years, including Jenkins Valve, Singer Sewing
Machine, Dictaphone and Columbia Records.
The brass company gift of 30 artworks to the museum included three huge
murals, two painted by Ralph L. Boyer in 1950 and the other by Robert L.
Lambdin in 1942-43.
Linda Malkin, museum senior vice president, said the museum board has
decided to sell the murals to the transportation center project.
"The murals are being sold to the project, based on an appraisal that has
not been done yet," she said.
Meanwhile, she said these artworks have been safely put away in storage at
the West End Moving and Storage Co.
Boyer's murals, "Rolling Mill Operation," a two-panel work about 6 feet high
and 15 feet long, and "Wire and Tube Mills and Casting Shop," 6 feet high
and 25 feet long in three panels, both depict 20th-century brass company
scenes.
Lambdin's mural, "Over Five Thousand Years Ago, Primitive Man Found Copper,
the Genesis of Our Civilization," is about 6 feet high and 14 feet long. It
includes numerous small scenes to recall the evolving use of copper through
the ages.
Boyer studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under William
Merritt Chase, an American impressionist, and Thomas Anshutz, a master of
industrial paintings.
Boyer joined the advertising staff of the Bridgeport Brass in 1942, where he
painted murals and worked on war production posters and advertising.
Lambdin painted several murals for area buildings in the 1930s for the Works
Project Administration, including some for the U.S. Post Office on Middle
Street in Bridgeport.
From the early 1940s to the late 1950s, Lambdin painted murals and other
works for Bridgeport Brass.
The Lambdin and Boyer murals were displayed along with other Brass Co.
artworks at the museum in early 1985.
The museum was then known as the Museum of Art, Science and Industry to
reflect its dual focus at that time on the natural and physical sciences and
decorative and fine arts.
The museum changed its name to the Discovery Museum in early 1990 to focus
on science and technology.
Since then, it has been transferring artworks to other museums or selling
them to raise funds to support its current operation and focus.
The museum has raised more than $200,000 by selling a variety of artworks in
three auctions at Christie's auction house.
Of that amount, $200,000 was placed in the museum foundation's permanent
endowment for long-term growth, while the remainder was used to pay for
costs associated with various current exhibits, according to Paul Audley,
former museum president.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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