George B. Post

Post was born on December 15, 1837 in Manhattan, New York, to Joel Browne Post and Abby Mauran Church.[4] After graduating from New York University in 1858 with a degree in civil engineering, Post became a student of Richard Morris Hunt from 1858 to 1860. In 1860, he formed a partnership with a fellow student in Hunt's office, Charles D. Gambrill, with a brief hiatus for service in the Civil War. Post served as the sixth president of the American Institute of Architects from 1896 to 1899.

Among the prominent private houses by Post were the French chateau for Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1879–82) that once stood at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street (that was photographed by Albert Levy while being built), and the palazzo that faced it across the street, for Collis P. Huntington (1889–94). In Newport, Rhode Island he built for the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, C.C. Baldwin, "Chateau-Nooga" or the Baldwin Cottage (1879–80), a polychromatic exercise in the "Quaint Style" with bargeboards and half-timbering; John La Farge provided stained glass panels. He also designed more staid public and semi-public structures including the New York Stock Exchange Building, the Bronx Borough Hall and the Wisconsin State Capitol.

In 1893, Post was named to the architectural staff of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois by Burnham and Root,[5] where he designed the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building.

A true member of the American Renaissance, Post engaged notable artists and artisans to add decorative sculpture and murals to his architectural designs. Among those who worked with Post were the sculptor Karl Bitter and painter Elihu Vedder. Post was a founding member of the National Arts Club, serving as the Club's inaugural president from 1898 to 1905. In 1905, his two sons were taken into the partnership, and they continued to lead the firm after Post's death, notably as the designers of many Statler Hotels in cities across the United States. From that time forward, the firm carried on under the stewardship of Post's grandson, Edward Everett Post (1904–2006) [6] until the late twentieth century.

Post trained architect Arthur Bates Jennings.[7]

One of Post's major works was the Vanderbilt Mansion, co-designed with Richard Morris Hunt, this English Jacobethan Gothic red-brick and limestone chateau stood at the corner of East 57th Street and 5th Avenue and was one of the most opulent single-family homes of its time. It featured a lavishly scrolled cast-iron gate forged in Paris (now in Central Park), sculptural reliefs by Karl Bitter (now in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel), an ornate reddish-brown marble fireplace sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and elaborate interior decoration by Frederick Kaldenberg, John LaFarge, Philip Martiny, Frederick W. MacMonnies, Rene de Quelin, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his brother Julius. The mansion was razed in 1927 for the construction of the Bergdorf Goodman department store at 754 Fifth Avenue.[8]

Sarah Landau's publication George B. Post, Architect: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist (1998) inspired a retrospective exhibition in 1998–99 to revisit Post's work at the Society. In 2014, curator, architect George Ranalli presented an exhibition of Post's drawings and photographs of the design of the City College of New York's main campus buildings, on loan from the New-York Historical Society.[9][10]

He received the AIA Gold Medal in 1911.[11] His extensive archive is in the collection at the New-York Historical Society.

He married Alice Matilda Stone (1840-1909) on October 14, 1863. They had five children: George Browne, Jr., William Stone, Allison Wright, James Otis and Alice Winifred.

Post died on November 28, 1913 in Bernardsville, New Jersey.[1][4] He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

• High Bridge Reformed Church, High Bridge, New Jersey, 1869[12]
• Equitable Life Building (New York City), 1868-1870, razed 1912.
• Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1869–1870, razed in 1907.
• Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Brooklyn, New York, 1870-1875
• Troy Savings Bank, Troy, New York, 1875.
• Western Union Telegraph Building, New York City, 1875. Often dubbed "the first skyscraper in New York City, this 10-story headquarters for Western Union featured a clock tower. The building was razed in 1914 for the AT&T headquarters at 195 Broadway.[13]
• Chickering Hall, New York City, c.1877. Built as the headquarters of the Chickering Piano Company, this four-story building faced in brick with brownstone and gray marble trim featured a 1,450-seat auditorium that hosted lectures by Thomas H. Huxley and Oscar Wilde and was the site of Alexander Graham Bell's first interstate telephone call to New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1877. Razed.[14]
• New York Hospital (razed), 1877, notable for its use of large ground-level windows for better natural illumination of the interior.[15]
• Library and Lyceum, Morristown, New Jersey. 1878, Razed.
• Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, New York, 1878–1880, Romanesque revival building employing architectural terracotta, originally named Long Island Historical Society.
• Post Building, New York City, 1880-81. A deep central recess provided light and air to the interiors, a feature that quickly became standard for large commercial structures.[16]
• Mills Building, New York City, 1881–1883, called "the first modern office building", on a two-story base, the upper eight floors reached by ten elevators, it used architectural terracotta panels, which Post had helped to introduce to the United States, and eliminated the conventional mansard roofline. Razed.[17]
• New York Produce Exchange (1881–84) at 2 Broadway faced Bowling Green. Built 1881-1885; Razed 1958.[18]
• Cornelius Vanderbilt Mansion, New York City, 1882, renovated and enlarged 1893, Razed 1927.
• New York Cotton Exchange (razed), New York City, 1883–1885
• Mortimer Building (razed), New York City, 1885
• New York World Building, or Pulitzer Building, New York City, at the time of its completion the tallest building in the world, 1889-1890, Razed.
• New York Times Building (41 Park Row), New York City, 1888–89
• Union Trust Building (razed), 78-82 Broadway, New York City, 1889–1890
• Prudential Headquarters (4 buildings), Newark, New Jersey, 1892-1911. Razed 1956.
• Manufacturer's and Liberal Arts Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893. Razed after the exposition concluded.[19]
• Erie County Savings Bank building, Buffalo, New York, 1893, in Romanesque Revival. Razed in 1968.
• Park Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1896, remodeled in the 1960s
• Bronx Borough Hall, New York City, 1897, Razed.
• St. Paul Building, New York City, 1898. Razed.
• New York Stock Exchange, New York City, 1901–1903
• City College of New York Campus, New York City, 1903–1907, in Gothic Revival style
• Old Montreal Stock Exchange Building, Montreal, Quebec, 1904.
• Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, Newark, New Jersey, 1904-08 (razed)
• Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin, 1906
• Cleveland Trust Company Building, Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 1908
• Pontiac Hotel, Oswego, New York, 1912

• Landau, Sarah Bradford, George B. Post: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist, the Monacelli Press, New York, 1998

• George B. Post at archINFORM

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George B. Post.

• George B. Post at Find a Grave