metal to simulate stone in a building's superstructure, it was the only estimate to fall within the board's projected budget. A graduate of New York University, Post studied under Richard Morris Hunt in the mid 1800s and soon became a respected architect in New York City. His preference for the Beaux Arts and French Renaissance styles can be seen in the building's highly detailed decorations. Construction began on the bank's new property on the corner of State and Second Streets in July 1871. The building was completed in April 1875, at a final cost of $435,000. The result was a massive six story edifice that dominates the surrounding neighborhood. The bank offices comprised about one-third of the first floor; the remainder was rented to area businesses, including at various times an insurance company, the Troy Chamber of Commerce, a bus terminal and a plumbing company. Above this rose the Music Hall: 106 feet long, 69 feet wide and a towering 61 feet high. Original granite stairs running the width of the building introduced concert-goers to the ornate grandeur of the hall. Box offices to the left and right preceded a center stairway, which led to the hall itself. Parquet and Dress Circle seats were, and still are, reached by using the center staircase. Iron staircases on either side guided the way to the upper and lower boxes, the balcony, and the gallery seating areas. The hall's seating capacity is 1,253, and seating arrangements have never changed. Post designed all of the staircases himself and had them constructed by Architectural Iron Works in New York City. Intricate frescoes, crafted by another New York City firm, G. Garibaldi, decorated the walls about the stage and ceiling. The frescoes above the stage were covered by the addition of a large tracker action organ in October, 1890. Most of the original frescoing is still visible, except for the ceiling, where the replacement of the chandelier in 1930 also involved repair work on the ceiling frescoes. The first chandelier was remarkable, with 14,000 hand-cut French prisms catching the light of 260 gas burners, ignited by a single traveling gas jet. In October 1923, it was converted to electric, and later replaced by the chandelier which hangs there today. The rest of the lighting was converted in 1929, following an accident in December 1928, when a ballerina's headdress was ignited by a gas lamp in her