Located in Staten Island Borough Hall

Frederick Charles Stahr was born on June 9, 1876, in New York City and lived as a youth on Staten Island. He studied art at the National Academy of Design and, after completing with honors, left for Europe to study art. He began to receive commissions to copy old masters in various European museums and after approximately five years he returned to the States, where he first became an instructor at Columbia University and then returned to assist at the National Academy of Design.

Amongst many of the mural commissions Stahr received: he assisted in painting the ceiling of the United States Treasury in Washington, D.C.; painting the "Court Scene" in the Newark Court House; painting the "History of Manhattan" in the Hotel Manhattan; assisted in painting the ceiling of the Metropolitan Opera House; and assisted in mural decorations of the Ottawa railroad station. During this time Stahr was awarded the Prix de Rome, a three year term of study of Italian Masters of Art in the Vatican' he ultimately received his Master's degree in Arts and Letters.

In 1904, at the time of the construction of Staten Island's Borough Hall, Stahr presented his idea of painting murals commemorating the history of Staten Island to the building's architects (Carrere & Hastings). Even though he was promised the commission, insufficient funds curtailed the awarding of the job to Stahr. After 32 years, and through the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), Stahr was finally awarded the commission to paint "the evolution of Staten Island." This was to be the first comprehensive series of paintings on a single subject to decorate the walls of a public building on Staten Island.

Stahr acquired an office on the third floor of Borough Hall for over two years and completed the 13 murals, which were then installed as you see them by 1940. Frederick Stahr died six years later at the age of 70.

[Text selected from the pamphlet - Recovering the Past: a 21st Century Guide to a restored 20th Century Space: Borough Hall's 1906 Main Floor and its WPA-era murals and sculptures. Available at Borough Hall. Picture titles below are taken from a 1940 Borough Hall alteration blueprint and are presumed to have been chosen by Mr. Stahr.]