Pen and ink on paper, backed with linen. Ca. 1869. Large drawing, 23.75" x 37" (see last picture for scale). Stains, age toning and edge fray, along with surface smudges and other defects as shown.

This is the first of two original and historically important pen and wash drawings submitted to John Andrew Jackson Creswell, the Postmaster General during 1869. Drawn by Alfred B. Mullett, unsigned. The following lot (106B) details these two men with brief biographies.

This is the original rendering for the City Hall Post Office and Courthouse, designed by architect Alfred B. Mullett, for the triangular site in New York City along Broadway in Civic Center, Lower Manhattan, in City Hall Park south of New York City Hall. The Second Empire style building, erected between 1869 and 1880, was not well received. Commonly called "Mullett's Monstrosity", it was demolished in 1939 and the site used to extend City Hall Park to the south. The building's French Second Empire style and architectural vocabulary were similar to its surviving siblings, the Old Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. On May 1, 1877, during the building's construction, three workers were killed when a concrete slab collapsed, prompting an investigation by the city and a public rebuttal of accusations of misconduct from Mullett.The building's former site is directly across Broadway from the Woolworth Building. With the passage of time and changing tastes, architectural criticism now regards the City Hall Post Office as one of Mullett's best works, providing a now-missing defining element at the bottom of City Hall Park.

The next lot is also a rendering of the same building from Broadway, signed by the Postmaster General and the Sec't of the Treasury.

please enlarge pictures and see item description

23.75 x 37 in