George Browne Post (December15, 1837November28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. Active from 1869 almost until his death, he was recognized as a master of several contemporary American architectural genres, and played a role in the birth of the

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

. He was President of the American Institute of Architects from 1896 to 1898. Many of his most characteristic projects were for commercial buildings where new requirements pushed the traditional boundaries of design. Many of the buildings he designed have been demolished, since their central locations in New York and other cities made them vulnerable to rebuilding in the twentieth century. Some of his lost buildings were regarded as landmarks of their era. His sons, who had been taken into the firm in 1904, continued after his death as George B. Post and Sons until 1930.

Early life and education

Post was born on December 15, 1837, in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York, to Joel Browne Post and Abby Mauran Church. After graduating from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 1858 with a degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

, Post became a student of

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 ...

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.

Career

Military service

Post served in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

under General Burnside at the

Battle of Fredericksburg The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat between the Union Army, Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major general ( ...

and later rose to the rank of

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the New York National Guard.

Architect

In 1867, Post founded his own architectural firm which expanded in 1904 when two of his sons, J. Otis and William Stone joined him to form become ''George B. Post and Sons.'' Post served as the sixth president of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

from 1896 to 1899. He also trained architect Arthur Bates Jennings. Post designed many of the prominent private homes in various places, with many concentrated in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and Bernardsville, NJ. He also designed many prominent commercial and public buildings. 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 Elihu Vedder (26 February 183629 January 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet from New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of '' The Rubaiyat of Omar Kh ...

. 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) until the late twentieth century. 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 The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

's main campus buildings, on loan from the

New-York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...

. Post received the

AIA Gold Medal The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...

in 1911. His extensive archive is in the collection at the

Private residences

The Cornelius Vanderbilt II House, which Post designed in partnership with

, was an English

Jacobethan The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...

Gothic red-brick and limestone chateau that stood at the corner of East 57th Street and

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

and was one of the most opulent single-family homes of its time. It featured a lavishly scrolled cast-iron gate forged in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(now in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

), sculptural reliefs by Karl Bitter (now in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel), an ornate reddish-brown marble fireplace sculpted by

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

(now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

), and elaborate interior decoration by Frederick Kaldenberg,

John LaFarge John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge made stained glass ...

, Philip Martiny, Frederick W. MacMonnies, Rene de Quelin, and

and his brother Julius. The mansion was razed in 1927 for the construction of the

Bergdorf Goodman Building The Bergdorf Goodman Building is a department store building at 754 Fifth Avenue between 57th Street (Manhattan), 57th and 58th streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building, designed by Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn, was ere ...

at 754 Fifth Avenue. The mansion was photographed by Albert Levy while being built. Post also designed the palazzo across the street that faced the Vanderbilt Mansion for Collis P. Huntington (1889–94). In

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

, he built a home for the president of the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of ...

, 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 John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge made stained glass ...

provided stained glass panels. Post also designed many of the gilded-age mansions found in Bernardsville, NJ and was credited more than anyone with selling wealthy New Yorkers on the idea of establishing a country home in the Somerset Hills. He designed Kenilwood—a grand home built in 1896–1897 as a wedding gift for his son—and an excellent residential example of

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

architecture in America. Kenilwood remained in the Post family until it was purchased by

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

in 1988.

Public buildings

Post also designed more staid public and semi-public structures including the New York Stock Exchange Building, the New York Times Building, the Bronx Borough Hall and the

Wisconsin State Capitol The Wisconsin State Capitol, located in Madison, Wisconsin, houses both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature along with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Governor of Wisconsin, Office of the Governor. Completed in 1917, the building is the ...

. In 1893, Post was named to the architectural staff of the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, by Burnham and Root, where he designed the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. In 1894, Post, along with J. Herbert Ballantine, Robert L. Stevens, and Edward T. H. Talmadge each pledged $8,000 to purchase land in Bernardsville, New Jersey, to establish the Somerset Hills Country Club, which, after being built on the banks of Ravine Lake was relocated in 1917 to its present site and includes a golf course designed by A.W. Tillinghast. Many of Post's design's were landmarks of the era. Post's Equitable Life Building (1868–70), was the first office building designed to use passenger elevators; Post himself leased the upper floors when contemporaries predicted they could not be rented. His Western Union Telegraph Building (1872–75) at Dey Street in Lower Manhattan, was the first office building to rise as high as ten stories, a forerunner of

s to come. Post's twenty-story New York World Building (1889–90) was the tallest building in New York City when it was erected in "Newspaper Row" facing

City Hall Park City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York. History 17th century David Provoost came to New Netherland as early as 1638, probab ...

Personal life

Post married Alice Matilda Stone (1840–1909) on October 14, 1863. Together, 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. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York City.

Partial list of works

* Kenilwood, Bernardsville, NJ. An excellent residential example of Gothic Revival architecture in the United States. *High Bridge Reformed Church, High Bridge, New Jersey, 1869 * Equitable Life Building (New York City), 1868–1870, razed 1912. * Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, 1869–1870, razed in 1907. * Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building (175 Broadway), Brooklyn, New York, 1870–1875 * Troy Savings Bank, Troy, New York, 1875. * Western Union Telegraph Building, New York City, 1875. Often dubbed "the first

, this 10-story headquarters for

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

featured a clock tower. The building was razed in 1914 for the

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

headquarters at

195 Broadway 195 Broadway, also known as the Telephone Building, Telegraph Building, or Western Union Building, is an early skyscraper on Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. T ...

. *Claremont, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 1907. George Post's home in the Somerset Hills. As of October 2020, for sale for $10 million. * 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 Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

and was the site of

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

's first interstate telephone call to

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, in 1877. Razed. * New York Hospital (razed), 1877, notable for its use of large ground-level windows for better natural illumination of the interior.Weisman, Winston. "The Commercial Architecture of George B. Post." ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,'' Vol. 31, No. 3 (October 1972), pp. 176–203.
/ref> *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. * 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. * New York Produce Exchange (1881–84) at 2 Broadway faced

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

. Built 1881–1885; Razed 1958. *

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

Mansion, New York City, 1882, renovated and enlarged 1893, Razed 1927. *

New York Cotton Exchange The New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) is a commodities exchange founded in 1870 by a group of one hundred cotton brokers and merchants in New York City. In 1998, the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) became the parent company of the New York Cotton ...

(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 Prudential Financial is based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. It began as The Widows and Orphans Friendly Society in 1875, and for a short time it was called the Prudential Friendly Society. For many years after 1877 it was known as the Prude ...

(4 buildings), Newark, New Jersey, 1892–1911. Razed 1956. * Manufacturer's and Liberal Arts Building,

, Chicago, Illinois, 1893. Razed after the exposition concluded.Weisman, Winston. "The Commercial Architecture of George B. Post." ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,'' Vol. 31, No. 3 (October 1972), p. 189.
/ref> * 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 Building, New York City, 1901–1903 *

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) *

, Madison, Wisconsin, 1906 * Cleveland Trust Company Building, Euclid Avenue,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, 1908 * Pontiac Hotel, Oswego, New York, 1912

References

External links

* *
George B. Post Architectural Records, circa 1860–1997 (bulk, 1880–1980), PR 53
at th
New-York Historical Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, George Browne 1837 births 1913 deaths 19th-century American architects Architects from Manhattan Defunct architecture firms based in New York City Presidents of the American Institute of Architects Fellows of the American Institute of Architects Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) People from Bernardsville, New Jersey Gilded Age Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal