In 1940 Ralph Hubbard Norton, CEO of the Acme Steel Company, commissioned Wyeth & King to design the Norton Gallery and School of Art (now known as the Norton Museum of Art). The Gallery and School was the first of its kind in South Florida, and Wyeth worked closely with Norton to create a building to house his art collection and educate the community. It was designed in the modern version of the Beaux Arts style: Art Deco. The original entrance of the building faced South Olive Avenue with a tripartite, symmetrical façade. Wyeth recommended Paul Manship, one of the leading Art Deco sculptors in the United States, to design the sculptures that would reside in the niches on either side of the entrance: Actaeon and Diana.
