Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was archived by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 12 June 2022 [1].

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House[edit]

Nominator(s): Epicgenius (talk) 02:56, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about a building that once contained the United States' most profitable custom house. The magnificent design includes a plethora of sculptures and statues on the exterior. The second floor contains a sprawling rotunda with ceiling murals, as well as other rooms embellished with carved details. It was first proposed in 1889 to replace 55 Wall Street, though various delays and disputes pushed back the opening to 1907. It was to be more expensive than every other public building in New York City except for the notorious Tweed Courthouse. The U.S. Customs Service left the building in 1974, and it fell into disuse for several years. Luckily, the building was restored in the 1980s and the building now contains the George Gustav Heye Center as well as U.S. government offices.

This page was promoted as a Good Article two years ago after a Good Article review by CaroleHenson, for which I am very grateful. In addition, the page received a GOCE copyedit a few months ago from Rublov, whose efforts I also appreciate. I think it's up to FA quality now, and I look forward to all comments and feedback. Epicgenius (talk) 02:56, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments Support from AviationFreak[edit]

These might be a tad nitpicky as the article overall looks very well-polished, but here's what I've got so far:

  • 55 Wall Street is linked twice in the body, once as the "Merchants Exchange" building (should it be Merchants' exchange?)
    • I removed the duplicate link and added an apostrophe. You're right, it should be possessive. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Our article on Columbia says that she is the female personification of the US, not a personification
  • Since 50 short tons is the same in both long and metric tons, is there perhaps some way to simplify the conversion?
  • Lintel is linked twice in the body; Only found this by chance, the article needs more thorough checking for duplinks (also entablature and George Gustav Heye Center)
  • To me, The primary figure of each group is female and flanked by auxiliary human figures seems to imply that the female figures are not human - Maybe clarify with "...of each group is a human female and..."?
    • That is a good point. I worded it this way because the previous sentence says the female figures are personifications; by definition, a personification is a representation of a human. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • eight carved keystones, which contain carved heads - Suggest removing the first "carved"
  • Same thing as above with tonnage conversions for seafaring nation statues
  • Suggest linking Great Seal of the United States for United States' coat of arms
  • There were elevators in each corner... - Did something happen to these elevators?
    • Oops. I meant to say there are elevators in each corner. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Suggest linking Ionic order
  • I may be missing something with both this and the elevators comment above, but The northeastern corner contained the cashier's office... - What happened to the cashier's office? When was it removed? What exists there now?
    • This is addressed at the end of the paragraph: "The former cashier's office has been incorporated into the Heye Center's museum store." I don't know when the cashier's office was removed, but it presumably occurred in 1973 when the Customs Service moved out. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Since most Rotundas appear to be circular (at least from the pictures on our article), may be worth noting that this one is elliptical (I assume the measurements of 85 by 135 feet are the minor and major axes of the ellipse, in a geometric interpretation)
  • ...which are bonded using Portland cement. - Are the layers bonded to each other using this cement or are the individual tiles bonded together using the cement? If the latter interpretation is correct, suggest using "grouted" instead of "bonded".
    • Both. The layers are bonded to each other, and the individual tiles are also bonded. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wainscoting is linked, but is used in prose (without a link) earlier on. This may be an issue that exists with other terms.
  • The outer portion of the fifth story was initially used for document storage since the windows overlooking the fifth story were small apertures within the entablature - Why does this arrangement make the space more suitable for document storage?
    • The windows were quite small, so that story would not have been usable as offices. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • If a dollar amount is available for the customs collector's salary in the House's heyday, it would be great to have that in the article alongside an Inflation template
  • Suggest using Inflation template(s) for dollar values throughout - Not necessarily every mention, but at least for values that are important to the rest of the paragraph/section (e.g. The appraisal estimated that it would cost $1.96 million to acquire land at Bowling Green.)
    • I have now added inflation to all significant dollar values. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Should "federal-government buildings" be hyphenated? Not sure if the guideline calls for it in this particular context, but it is unhyphenated elsewhere.
  • A jury of three men - I only think of "jury" as being a legal term, would "committee" be a better term here?
  • Suggest linking United States Bicentennial
  • Standardize whether punctuation appears inside or outside of quotes (to my recollection it was always outside up until the last section, but this probably warrants another check).

Overall a very comprehensive and well-written article! Let me know if you have any questions about my comments. AviationFreak💬 19:20, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@AviationFreak: Thanks for the detailed comments. I have addressed all of your concerns now. Epicgenius (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, it looks great! Support on prose. AviationFreak💬 16:29, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Image review by PMC[edit]

Since this is the first time I've done an image review, I'm going to note every image so that my work can easily by checked should a coord feel the need. At this time, I have no concerns as to the copyright status or origins of any of the images.

  • Infobox image: building is public domain due to age, own work photo
  • Roof detail: own work and appropriately licensed
  • Asia sculpture: sculpture is PD-old, created 1903-1907, photo own work
  • Sculptures of seafaring nations: created when the building was, so PD-old, photo own work
  • Lobby and rotunda images: own-work photos of interiors too old to be copyrighted
  • Rotunda murals: all paintings are PD due to age, and all photos are PD due to being taken by federal government employees
  • Merchant's Exchange drawing: PD-old
  • King's Color-graphs: PD-old as the book was published 1910.
  • The version here looks a little pink compared to the archive.org scan - not sure which is more correct; that may be worth looking into.
  • 1912 image: book verifiably published in 1912, PD-old
  • 2008 building exterior: as infobox image, own work and building too old to be copyrighted
  • 2013 entrance: own work of PD building exterior
  • Interior detail images by Rhododendrites: own work of PD-old designs
  • The images are used judiciously - there is no over-cramming of unnecessary images.
  • I see one instance of sandwiching when my browser is set to my typical width of 1500px - the Asia sculpture and the "Sculptures of seafaring nations" images.
  • I'm curious about the choice to include a gallery of all the rotunda paintings but only including one of the Four Continents sculptures.

Overall another example of your excellent work in the topic area. I look forward to supporting on the basis of image use. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 10:30, 13 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

    • @Premeditated Chaos: Thanks for the image review. Regarding the Four Continents sculptures, I just added the other three images using Template:Multiple image. I also moved the "multiple image" template to the top of the section to avoid any sandwiching at all. Epicgenius (talk) 21:56, 14 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • Everything looks good to me. I'm happy to support based on excellent image use. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 06:07, 15 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinator note[edit]

After nearly five weeks this nomination has only attracted one general support. Unless further attention is forthcoming over the next two or three days I am afraid that it is liable to be archived. Gog the Mild (talk) 19:43, 5 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Lee Vilenski[edit]

I'll begin a review of this article very soon! My reviews tend to focus on prose and MOS issues, especially on the lede, but I will also comment on anything that could be improved. I'll post up some comments below over the next couple days, which you should either respond to, or ask me questions on issues you are unsure of. I'll be claiming points towards the wikicup once this review is over.

Lede
Prose
Additional comments

Additionally, if you liked this review, or are looking for items to review, I have some at my nominations list. Lee Vilenski (talk • contribs) 19:45, 7 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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