Lee Brozgold and Students of P.S. 41
The, Greenwich Village Murals
1994

Mosaic and ceramic tiles

With special thanks to P.S. 41:
Art teacher Deborah Lewis and student artists Joseph Breed, Alex Chester, Marc Freshman, Stephen Giglio, Lila Gollogly, Steven Gouin, Georgia Kung, Enrique Lomnitz, and Jamaal Thomas

Fabricated by Sherle Wagner International, Inc. and Miotto Mosaics.

Commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit and MTA New York City Transit

[and a plate below describes the characters]
Providers
This mural illustrates the Village’s famed spirit of reform emerging through the institutions created by these people, including the New School for Social Research, the Children’s Aid Society, the Bank Street College of Education, and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

1."Papa" Albert Strunsky, benevolent landlord
2. Charles Loring Brace, Children’s Aid Society
3. Paul Popham, GMHC
4. Mary Kingsbury Simkbovitch, Greenwich House
5. Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor
6. Lucy Spraig Mitchell, educator

The murals at the Christopher Street/Sheridan Square subway station were done by school students under the guidance of an art teacher. The paintings express characters who were part of the people of Greenwich Village

The paintings were taken on the same day by the same photographer Click for a larger image

The paintings are from the "Providers" series - personalities who made a significant contribution to Greenwich Village. The second plate (whose text appears in the main description) was taken on the same day by the same photographer
In this plate, the individual numbers that appear in the various pictures are indicated, in the following text we will stick to this numbering
Click for a larger image

The following pictures show the drawings and a brief explanation about them:
(The personalities appear in this picture from left to right)
1. Albert Strunsky ("Papa") (1870–1942) - The Generous Landlord - Papa was a Russian immigrant who began his career in Greenwich Village selling wine to restaurants. Over the years he began to purchase apartments and buildings in the area. In the years after World War I, he rented the apartments to artists and writers and was very generous with the terms of payment he followed and did not evict tenants from their apartments.
His daughter married musician Ira Gershwin.
2. Charles Loring Brace (1826-1890) - a philanthropist who contributed a lot to social reforms. In 1853 he founded the Children’s Aid Society, which supports children from the margins of society. Bryce appears in front of the locomotive that symbolizes the trains in which the children would be transported from the poor neighborhoods to the more established parts of the United States, trains that were nicknamed the "orphan trains".
3. Paul Popham (1941–1987) - an American activist who worked for LGBT rights and founded GMHC - Gay Men’s Health Crisis - a non-profit institution that mainly fights AIDS.
Click for a larger image

4. Mary Kingsbury Simkbovitch (1867-1951) - urban planner and welfare worker, who is known for Greenwich House which she established in 1902. Greenwich House is an institution that exists to this day that was established with the aim of helping immigrants who came to the United States integrate into society.
Click for a larger image

(The personalities appear in this picture from left to right)
5. Fiorello LaGuardia (1882-1947) - Mayor of New York during World War II. La Guardia supported the immigrants who arrived in New York and also helped save European Jews during the war.
(The personalities appear in this picture from left to right)
5. Fiorello LaGuardia (1882-1947) - Mayor of New York during World War II. La Guardia supported the immigrants who arrived in New York and also helped save European Jews during the war.
6. Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1878–1967) - American educator, who founded the Bureau of Educational Experiments in 1916, an institution designed to conduct research in new and advanced teaching methods. Later a nursery was opened there. Today the institution is called Bank Street College of Education
Click for a larger image

Additional signs at other platforms:
Bohemian People Click for sign's details
The founders Click for sign's details