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Book 26: PAPAZOGLU HAN

POST OFFICE ON A MISTY DAY

-The main post office from down the street on a misty white day-2-6-11- Architect: Vedat Tek Bey 1909

Spectacular, gleaming through the fog, the Main Post Office as seen between the Grizabella building and the one across the narrow alley. Vedat Tek was the architect for Sultan Abdulhamid. The Post Office started life as a bank, but was given to the people of Istanbul by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Founder of the Republic. It is now in restoration.

WAITING AT THE P.O.

-Sultan Abdulhamid built this around 1909.-In the Post Office on a cold day.-Waiting at the Post Office- TriciVenola ©2011

This glorious marble lobby has tiers of windows around a stories-high space topped with a skylight in stained glass. It was  decorated with the biggest painting of Ataturk I’ve ever seen. The building, designed by Vedat Tek, started as a bank but was given by Ataturk to the people of Istanbul for their main post office. It’s now closed for restoration. The old lobby was a pastiche of antique wood and brass punctuated with computer screens. The wooden writing desks were covered with graffiti, and one could easily imagine Agatha Christie standing at one, in her flowered dress and hat, addressing a manuscript.

At Modern Sultan Hotel: Us girls in 2011: Rhonda with Leyla on her lap, Jeannie & Me.

PRETTY RHONDA

-Nasty cold overcast & then a hailstorm but resolved at last into a fine sunny day.
-Pretty Rhonda in early April -TriciVenola ©2011

She’s run hotels all over the world, now. She’s still pretty.

OSMAN AT MODERN SULTAN

Osman- TriciVenola ©5 Mart 2011

One of my favorite portraits ever. Osman, 16 when I drew him, worked for Jeannie and Rhonda at their hotel. It was his first job. He seems to have drawn himself.

EMINE AT MODERN SULTAN

Emine-TriciVenola ©4/11 2011

Emine saw Osman’s portrait and asked for one, so here it is.

BAYRAM SNOOZING

Bayram snoozing in the shop – Trici Venola ©2011

Even carpet sellers have to sleep sometime!

ON LEGACY STREET

As I finished this drawing, my phone rang: Jerry & Kathleen from LA, friends of 30 years I hadn’t seen since I moved here. -150 years old. Was Vakif Han.-Ibrahim Uzen-Vedat Tek-
TriciVenola ©2011

So Vedat Tek was the same architect who created the Main Post Office building for Sultan Abdulhamid. This was a han, now a hotel that caters to Arabs. Jerry and Kathleen were a shot of pure joy, a wonderful, unexpected good thing that came during this incandescent drawing nirvana in 2011.

HOBYAR CAMII

-The view is fine from Yavuzlar Bufe in Sirkeci.-This early-20th-century mosque replaced one from 1477.-TriciVenola ©2011

That early 20th-century architecture is downright fanciful. This was probably built in 1909, to go with the big new savings & loan building that became the main Post Office.

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