Every student at Mamaroneck High School (MHS) has recently heard about the murals in the Post building and seen signs of construction taking place on the third floor where the murals were previously located. The murals that were hanging on the third floor of the Post building have recently been removed and will no longer be a part of MHS. This marks their departure from MHS after almost 80 years.

In 1934, students at the Junior High School in Mamaroneck (now the Post Building of MHS) had the idea to make multiple murals to decorate the cafeteria (now the third floor of Post that is enclosed within the outer hallway that forms the perimeter of the third floor). Designed by students from the Yale School of Art, all of the paintings were focused either on the life of famous writer and local resident James Fenimore Cooper, or on some of the scenes depicted in his book Leatherstocking Tales. Carefully painted and designed, a total of eight murals were hung up in 1941. Despite changes to MHS over the years, these murals have remained – until recently.

The future of these murals changed on January 18, 2022 when the Mamaroneck Board of Education voted in favor of constructing a new design lab on the third floor of the Post Building, the area where the murals were. These plans stipulated that a few of the murals would have to be destroyed while the rest would be walled in, which would prevent anyone from seeing them. Had this plan taken effect, anyone who enjoyed the historical value of the murals would have been disappointed. Thanks to widespread calls and petitions from the school community, the Mamaroneck Historical Society, and people from across the country, seven of the eight murals were carefully taken down from the walls to be preserved.

All but one of the murals are now stored at the Murphy Brothers’ store in Mamaroneck, while the last one is still left to be protected behind a constructed wall for the lab and will be restored in the future. Restoration is necessary for all of the murals, as one of them lost paint while being removed, others had thin or damaged canvas, and each of them needs some form of cleaning since they have been in an environment full of students. After restoration, there are tentative plans to put the murals on display in various parts of Mamaroneck.

In the aftermath of all these events, MHS students and teachers will have a new design lab but will no longer have the murals. The Mamaroneck Historical Society and everyone else who enjoys the murals have been successful in preventing the murals from being destroyed. When MHS students walk the third floor of Post or attend future design classes, they should be aware that many murals used to hang there.