POST, George Browne (1837-1913), an important New York City architect credited with adapting the lavish Renaissance Revival style to the needs of the American commercial building prototypes. His major works there include the Equitable Life Assurance Building (1868-70), one of the first office buildings to incorporate the passenger elevator, as well as the Western Union Building (1873-75), the Produce Exchange (1881-85), the Cotton Exchange (1883-85), the New York Times Building (1888-90), and the Vanderbuilt mansion on Fifth Avenue (1883-85).
In Canada, he entered the competition for the Board of Trade Building in Toronto (1888) but drawings for his proposal cannot be found. In Montreal he acted as consulting architect to J.W. & E.C. Hopkins for their design of the Head Office of the Montreal Street Railway Co., a robust Romanesque Revival proposal adapted to a steeply sloping site (1894). His success with the New York City commission to design the Stock Exchange on Wall Street (1901-03) likely influenced the decision to hire Post to advise on the design of the Montreal Stock Exchange (1903-04), a formally composed Beaux-Arts landmark now adapted to new uses as a performance theatre.
Just five months before the death of Post Sr., the firm opened a Toronto office, presumably with the expectation of more work in Canada (Const., vi, Aug. 1913, 313). After the death of their father in late November 1913, his two sons James O. Post and William S. Post continued the practise, and in 1916 presented plans for a ten storey hotel costing $2 million, to be built on the site of the Toronto Arcade Building, Yonge Street, TORONTO, ONT. (Toronto World, 2 Aug. 1916, 5; Const., ix, Sept. 1916, 312; Nov. 1916, 393). Their scheme was never realised. Post died in Bernardsville,N.J. on 28 November 1913 (obit. New York Times, 29 Nov. 1913, 13; Herald-Tribune [New York], 29 Nov. 1913, 9; Brickbuilder [New York], xxii, Dec. 1913, 288-9; American Architect [New York], civ, 10 Dec. 1913, 3; obit. Journal of the American Inst. of Architects [Washington], ii, Jan. 1914, 50-51; biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 482-4; Dictionary of American Biography, 1937, viii, 115-16; MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1983, iii, 460-3). A detailed illustrated appraisal of the early work of Post appeared in Architectural Record [New York], vii, June 1898, 1-102, illus. A full monograph on Post written by Sarah B. Laudau entitled George B. Post: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist, was published in 1998.
MONTREAL, QUE., (with J.W. & E.C. Hopkins), Montreal Street Railway Head Office, Place d'Armes Hill, Craig Street and Fortification Lane, 1894 (C.A.B., viii, Jan. 1895, 8; Montreal, Les Hotels Les Immeubles de Bureaux, 1983, 93-6, illus.)
MONTREAL, QUE., (with E. & W.S. Maxwell), Montreal Stock Exchange, St. Francois Xavier Street, 1903-04 (Montreal Star, 27 Jan. 1903, 1, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xiii, 4 Feb. 1903, 2; xiv, 22 July 1903, 8; Montreal, Les Banques, 1980, 124-5, illus.)
COMPETITIONS
TORONTO, ONT., Board Of Trade Building, Yonge Street at Front Street East, 1888. Post was one of four competitors from the United States and Canada invited to submit a design in this competition (Toronto World, 20 June 1888, 1). The other firms invited were Richard Waite (from Buffalo, N.Y.), Darling & Curry, and Langley & Burke, and each received $400 to prepare their scheme. Objections to the limits on the number of entrants forced organizers to re-open the competition in November 1888 and twenty designs were submitted (C.A.B., ii, April 1889, 42). Post was among those to re-submit a plan, but his scheme was not premiated. The commission was awarded to James & James of New York City. MONTREAL, QUE., Board of Trade Building, 1891. This firm was one of six American architects invited to submit a design for this major building, and he received $300 for his effort. (Montreal Daily Star, 25 Feb. 1891, 6, list of competitors). Many Canadian architects strongly objected to being prevented from submitting a design. The winner was Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge of Boston.