Martin Euclid Thompson (1786–1877) was an American architect and artist prolific in nineteenth-century

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and a co-founder of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

. Landmarks Preservation Commission (New York City)br>LP-0312
October 12, 1967 Originally trained as a carpenter, he had been a partner of

Ithiel Town Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the f ...

and went on to become one of the founders of the

. Thompson's symmetrical structure of brick in

English bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

, 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.

Works

* Second Branch Bank of the United States (1824), now preserved as a facade in the American Wing of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Merchants Exchange Building (New York City) 55 Wall Street, formerly known as the National City Bank Building, is an eight-story building on Wall Street between William Street (Manhattan), William and Hanover streets in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manha ...

, destroyed in the

Great Fire of New York The 1835 Great Fire of New York was one of three fires that rendered extensive damage to New York City in the 18th and 19th centuries. The fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom, covering 17 city blocks, killing two people, and destroyin ...

, December 1835. *Naval Hospital, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn (1830–38) *His

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

Colles Mansion (1838), Morristown, New Jersey, is no
The Kellogg Club
ref name=LPC/> *The Admiral's House (Governor's Island) (1843), Governors Island, New York City, landmarked July 24, 1972. * The Arsenal (1847–1851), 830 Fifth Avenue, New York CityThe "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,

. * Sailors Snug Harbor, Staten Island, is now attributed to

Minard Lafever Minard Lafever (1798–1854) was an American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Life and career Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no ...

(Not Correct - Builder was Samuel Thomson of Inwood, NY)

References

;Notes

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
1786 births 1877 deaths 19th-century American architects American civil engineers Greek Revival architects Federalist architects Architects from New York City Defunct architecture firms based in New York City Engineers from New York City {{US-architect-stub