alfred b. mullett 109
as supervising architect can be measured in the large architectural
output over the decade in which he served as head of the Supervising
Architect s Office, a level of productivity that exceeded any record
posted by the federal architecture program up to that time.
Chicago architect Peter B. Wight, an active aia member but a
more moderate observer of the political realities of Mullett s posi-
tion, captured Mullett s achievements as an administrator. He placed
Mullett s era within its historical context as succeeding the military
role of the Bowman/Young era and the brief Rogers era. As
Congress ordered the construction of new buildings:
a governmental architectural office was in actual operation in the
Treasury Building, [and] it became a matter of great convenience
to have all the architectural work done in this office. The ad-
mirable executive ability of Mr. Mullett enabled him to organize
the machinery of the office in a comprehensive and systematic
manner.
As the federal architecture program grew:
the patronage bestowed upon it was enormous, and became the
greed of aspiring politicians. The eyes of the whole country were
directed upon its transactions. It was the battlefield of many a hot
dispute, and the interests of contending sections were centered in
its operations.
Mullett did not flinch from the rising workload and executed it with
remarkable speed, precision, and economy. 120
Mullett s achievements, however, were overshadowed by the es-
sential role he was forced to play with members of President Grant s
administration and politically influential suppliers of building mate-
rials and building elements. The architectural profession resented his
many major buildings, viewing the projects as a threat to the public s
appreciation of their profession. For the private architects, Mullett
was an easy target for their lobbying efforts to change the structure
of the federal architecture program. Mullett s downfall was as much
a product of his own personal failings as it was a result of the archi-
tectural profession s hunger for some of the acclaim that accompa-
nied the design of major public buildings. Although Mullett played
an important role in the development of Washington architecture af-
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