Recreation

Long Beach Recreation, a monumental mosaic tile mural created in 1937 as a W.P.A. Federal Arts Project, was made by dozens of artists to grace the facade of the Municipal Auditorium. One of the largest mosaic murals in the world, it was created from more than 466,000 California tiles, covers 800 square feet, and weighs over 3,000 pounds. It was originally designed to fit in a large arch on the front of the recently completed Long Beach Municipal Auditorium after plans for a painted mural about California history were abandoned because of cost during the Great Depression. Unveiled in 1938, it depicted local activities including summer beach play, a sailor admiring the beginning of his young family, horseshoe players judging a game's score, and participants arguing in a free speech area known as the Sit and Argue Club. Henry Nord designed the mosaic, and Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Albert Henry King redesigned it with help from Louise Etcheverry; Stanley Spohn, John Hubley, Margaret Waite, and Robert Boag carried out the scaling, details, execution, and installation; Louisa King designed the edge tiles and Don Totton created the color design. The artists were so proud of their work that they glazed their names on the edge tiles wrapping around the mosaic. After the Municipal Auditorium was demolished in 1975, local preservationists urged the city to save the work, and caring citizens helped spare it from destruction. It was placed in storage and then moved to this site in 1982, installed on the south side of the parking garage built for the Long Beach Plaza shopping center. When the enclosed mall was demolished and rebuilt as CityPlace in 2002, the mosaic was protected in place, and its current street-level setting honors lead artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright's wish that it be displayed at street level.

Long Beach, California · United States