Martin E. Thompson

Martin Euclid Thompson (1786–1877) was an American architect and artist prolific in nineteenth-century New York City, and a co-founder of the National Academy of Design.[1]

Martin Euclid Thompson
Portrait by William Sidney Mount
Born	1786
Died	1877
Known for	Architect

The Central Park Arsenal in 1914

Originally trained as a carpenter, he had been a partner of Ithiel Town and went on to become one of the founders of the National Academy of Design. Thompson's symmetrical structure of brick in English bond, with headers every fifth course, presents a central block in the manner of a fortified gatehouse flanked by half-octagonal towers. The carpentry doorframe speaks of its purpose with an American eagle displayed between stacks of cannonballs over the door, and crossed sabers and stacked pikes represented in flanking panels.[1]

Works

• Second Branch Bank of the United States (1824), now preserved as a facade in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art[1]
• Merchants Exchange Building (New York City), destroyed in the Great Fire of New York, December 1835.[1]
• Naval Hospital, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn (1830–38)[2]
• His Greek Revival Colles Mansion (1838), Morristown, New Jersey, is now The Kellogg Club[1]
• The Admiral's House (Governor's Island) (1843), Governors Island, New York City, landmarked July 24, 1972.[3]
• The Arsenal (1847–1851), 830 Fifth Avenue, New York City[1][4]
• Sailors Snug Harbor, Staten Island, is now attributed to Minard Lafever[1](Not Correct - Builder was Samuel Thomson of Inwood, NY)

References

Notes

1. Landmarks Preservation Commission (New York City).LP-0312 Archived 2012-05-20 at WebCite October 12, 1967
2. [Endangered Buildings Initiative - Naval Hospital http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/endangered_buildings_initiative/naval_hospital/]
3. 3. The Admiral's House Archived 2010-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
4. The "other building by Martin Thompson in Central Park"— a trick question— is the façade of the Second Branch Bank of the United States (1824), re-erected at the American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

External links

• Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Thompson (see index)
• Martin E. Thompson architectural drawings and papers, 1822-1861. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University