Sam Adams Hangs His Official Portrait and Other Fun Facts

As we warned was coming, Mayor Sam Adams—snapped by one Robbie Augspurger—has officially joined his beloved/infamous/reviled/bland/etc. predecessors on the Wall of Mayoral Portraits hanging just inside the mayor’s third-floor offices in city hall.

• Denis C. Theriault
• Keith Lachowicz, public arts collection manager at the Regional Arts & Culture Council, hangs up Mayor Sam Adams’ offiicial portrait.

It was a perfunctory thing, really—with no fanfare this afternoon, just a lot of adjustments and grunt work. But still interesting! Here are some fun facts.

1. Adams’ portrait is the first to hang in color. But his staff was nervous enough about pushing the envelope, in case Charlie Hales or some future mayor decides tradition has been affronted, that a black-and-white version was slipped behind the color version.

2. Matching black frames for 40-plus mayors and counting will one day become very difficult. William Rihel of RACC says the company that’s supplied all the current frames, Dennis Daniels Co., only had six left in stock when he called to get Adams’ frame. Rihel, a little bummed, bought them all but said, “I wanted nine to complete the row” Adams is on. With five mayors left, that’ll be an issue in 20 years if everyone serves just one term or, y’know, 40 years or longer if everyone serves (at least) two.

3. Despite reports that Adams’ face would reside behind a lamp after all the old pictures were rearranged like Neil Goldschmidt’s… that’s not going to happen. The lamp that would have obscured Adams’ portrait has been moved across the vestibule the portraits all call home.