U.S. Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)
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| U.S. Post Office | |
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| (U.S. Registered Historic District Contributing Property) |
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| Location: | Rhinebeck, NY |
| Nearest city: | Kingston, NY |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1940 |
| Architect: | Olin Dows, R. Stanley-Brown |
| Architectural style(s): | Colonial Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | 1989 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 88002419 |
| Governing body: | United States Postal Service |
The U.S. Post Office in Rhinebeck, New York serves the 12572 ZIP Code. It is located on US 9 (formerly Mill Street) just south of the intersection with NY 308 at the center of the village.
It is a stone Colonial Revival structure built in 1940, during the New Deal. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a native of nearby Hyde Park, took a personal interest in its design, as he did with other post offices in Dutchess County built during his administration.
He insisted that it be built in the style of Kipsbergen, a nearby home (destroyed by fire in the early 20th century) where some of his ancestors had lived, which features a similarly steep-sloped front roof. There was some opposition to this from local historians since they did not think the style typical of Dutch colonial homes in the region, but eventually it was built as Roosevelt wished. Local artist Olin Dows, head of the Treasury Relief Art Program, painted a mural inside of scenes from Rhinebeck's history [1]
Roosevelt spoke at length about the building and its design at the dedication ceremony on May 1, 1939:
We are seeking to follow the type of architecture which is good in the sense that it does not of necessity follow the whims of the moment but seeks an artistry that ought to be good, as far as we can tell, for all time to come. And we are trying to adapt the design to the historical background of the locality and to use, insofar as possible, the materials which are indigenous to the locality itself. Hence, fieldstone for Dutchess County. Hence, the efforts during the past few years in Federal buildings in the Hudson River Valley to use fieldstone and to copy the early Dutch architecture which was so essentially sound besides being very attractive to the eye.[2]
Both Postmaster General James Farley, and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. were present, along with the crown prince and princess of Denmark and Iceland, who were touring the U.S. at the time, and all of them ceremonially laid the first mortar on the cornerstone.[2] In 1989 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, a contributing property to the Rhinebeck Village Historic District.
[edit] References
- ^ FDR and Dutchess County Stone Buildings. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
- ^ a b Address at the Dedication of the New Post Office in Rhinebeck, New York.. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
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