Mt. Airy, Granite, & New York City!

nyccapitalpostcard.jpg

This morning there was a bit of excitement over a postcard from the Barbour collection, which pictured several strapping young men of the 1910’s hanging out around a very large granite column capital. The message on the back of the card was written by Ed, a worker from a Mt. Airy granite quarry, who claimed his quarry “Shipped 4,000 cars last year- enough granite in sight for 1,100 years.” The message also suggested that the capital was carved in Mt. Airy and then shipped to New York City, where it became part of the Manhattan Municipal Building, pictured below. The postcard is postmarked 1913, the same year in which the building was first occupied.

NYC Municipal Building

Image courtesy of Flickr user: Haikus, via Creative Commons license.