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]
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.
He designed the New York State Militia's Arsenal, which in the 1850s became part of Central Park. 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]
^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.
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)
