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U.S. Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)
Encyclopedia
The U.S. Post Office in Rhinebeck
, New York serves the 12572 ZIP Code
. It is located on Mill Street (US 9) 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 chose a ruined historic house, whose stones were used in the post office, as its model, and spoke at its dedication. In 1989 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. It is also a contributing property
to the Rhinebeck Village Historic District
.
building with a low-sloping jerkin roof shingled
in asbestos
treated to look like wood. It flares out over a porch that runs the length of the eastern (front) elevation. Two large brick chimneys rise from the ends, both next to a small dormer window on the north and south faces.
The porch is wooden, supported by square piers, with a bluestone
floor. At either end of the facade
are the large cornerstone
s, also of bluestone. One is a standard datestone giving the names of the participants in the ceremony; the other says that the building is a replica of the 1700 Beekman House
and that stones from the ruins of that house were used to build the post office. The main entrance, a simulated Dutch door
, is within a wooden vestibule
.
Inside, the lobby stretches across the front of the building. It is floored in random-width pegged oak. Pine wainscoting rises to a ceiling with hand-hewn exposed beams. Two display cases contain other remnants of the Beekman House. Above the wainscot are mural
s depicting scenes from local history, including the post office's groundbreaking ceremony. Two original oak counters remain. The postmaster
's office to the north is paneled.
A long wing projects to the west, where the parking lot, accessed from nearby West Market Street, is located. Two original cast iron
lamps are located along the sidewalk leading to the entrance from Mill Street.
in the Hudson Valley
, the material favored by many early Dutch settlers
of the region, including his own ancestors. He had made sure, in the mid-1920s, that Hyde Park's library, built in his father
's memory, used stone. As president he had ensured that new post offices in Beacon and Poughkeepsie used the material. The latter had also emulated an earlier building, Dutchess County
's 1809 courthouse.
After Poughkeepsie's post office was completed and opened, Postmaster General
James Farley
asked Roosevelt if he wanted to start work on a new post office in Hyde Park, a project he had wanted to undertake. Congress had authorized both post offices in 1937. Since Rhinebeck was a larger community with a more pressing need for a new post office, the president told Farley to give it priority first. The town helped matters along by selling the site of their 1872 town hall to the federal government for $16,000 ($ in contemporary dollars).
Roosevelt insisted that the new post office be built in the style of Kipsbergen, or the Beekman House, 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 homes in the region, but eventually it was built as Roosevelt wished.
Rudolph Stanley-Brown, a former Treasury Department architect then in private practice, handled the details of the design. Many of Kipsbergen's stones remained, and these were used in the post office's construction. Ultimately, 90% of the front wall was built of its stones. Local artist Olin Dows, head of the Treasury Relief Art Program, later painted a mural
inside of scenes from Rhinebeck's history.
Both Farley and Treasury Secretary
Henry Morgenthau Jr. were present at the dedication ceremony on May 1, 1939, along with the crown prince
and princess
of Denmark
and Iceland
, who were touring the U.S. at the time. All of them ceremonially laid the first mortar
on the cornerstone
.
The president spoke at length about the building and its design:
Three of the six stone post offices in the region whose design Roosevelt oversaw were based on historic buildings no longer extant at the time of their construction. Of those three, Rhinebeck's most closely replicates its original, and is the only one with an exhibit inside of some other remnants of that model. Its porch and lobby mimic a typical 18th-century colonial home's finishing. The paneling in the postmaster's office imitates a parlor of that era.
A few changes have been made to the building over time, such as the installation of modern light fixtures in the lobby and aluminum-muntined storm windows, but it has otherwise remained largely intact. In 1989 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
, a contributing property
to the existing Rhinebeck Village Historic District
.
Rhinebeck (village), New York
Rhinebeck is a village located in the Town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport,...
, New York serves the 12572 ZIP Code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
. It is located on Mill Street (US 9) just south of the intersection with NY 308
New York State Route 308
New York State Route 308 is a short state highway, in length, located entirely in northern Dutchess County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is a major collector road through mostly rural areas that serves primarily as a shortcut for traffic from the two main north–south routes in the area,...
at the center of the village.
It is a stone Colonial Revival structure built in 1940, during the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a native of nearby Hyde Park
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
, took a personal interest in its design, as he did with other post offices in Dutchess County
Dutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
built during his administration. He chose a ruined historic house, whose stones were used in the post office, as its model, and spoke at its dedication. In 1989 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It is also a contributing property
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the Rhinebeck Village Historic District
Rhinebeck Village Historic District
The Rhinebeck Village Historic District is located along US 9 and NY 308 in Rhinebeck, New York, United States. It is an area of contains 272 buildings in a variety of architectural styles dating from over 200 years of the settlement's history...
.
Building
The post office is a one-and-a-half-story fieldstoneFieldstone
Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...
building with a low-sloping jerkin roof shingled
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
in asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
treated to look like wood. It flares out over a porch that runs the length of the eastern (front) elevation. Two large brick chimneys rise from the ends, both next to a small dormer window on the north and south faces.
The porch is wooden, supported by square piers, with a bluestone
Bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
floor. At either end of the facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
are the large cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
s, also of bluestone. One is a standard datestone giving the names of the participants in the ceremony; the other says that the building is a replica of the 1700 Beekman House
Kip-Beekman-Heermance Site (A027-16-0223)
Kip-Beekman-Heermance Site is a historic archaeological site located at Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. The site includes the ruins of the Kip-Beekman-Heermance House built 1700 by Hendrick Kip, Patentee. It was also the home of Col. Henry Beekman, Jr. later of his Grandson Col. Henry...
and that stones from the ruins of that house were used to build the post office. The main entrance, a simulated Dutch door
Dutch door
A Dutch door , or stable door , or half door , is a door divided horizontally in such a fashion that the bottom half may remain shut while the top half opens...
, is within a wooden vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
.
Inside, the lobby stretches across the front of the building. It is floored in random-width pegged oak. Pine wainscoting rises to a ceiling with hand-hewn exposed beams. Two display cases contain other remnants of the Beekman House. Above the wainscot are mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s depicting scenes from local history, including the post office's groundbreaking ceremony. Two original oak counters remain. The postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
's office to the north is paneled.
A long wing projects to the west, where the parking lot, accessed from nearby West Market Street, is located. Two original cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
lamps are located along the sidewalk leading to the entrance from Mill Street.
History
Even before he became governor of New York State in 1928, Roosevelt had taken a keen interest in reviving the use of fieldstoneFieldstone
Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...
in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
, the material favored by many early Dutch settlers
Dutch colonization of the Americas
Dutch trading posts and plantations in the Americas precede the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch in Asia. Whereas the first Dutch fort in Asia was built in 1600 , the first forts and settlements on the Essequibo river in Guyana and on the Amazon date from the 1590s...
of the region, including his own ancestors. He had made sure, in the mid-1920s, that Hyde Park's library, built in his father
James Roosevelt
James Roosevelt was the oldest son of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a United States Congressman, an officer in the United States Marine Corps, an aide to his father, the official Secretary to the President, a Democratic Party activist, and a businessman.-Early life:Roosevelt was...
's memory, used stone. As president he had ensured that new post offices in Beacon and Poughkeepsie used the material. The latter had also emulated an earlier building, Dutchess County
Dutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
's 1809 courthouse.
After Poughkeepsie's post office was completed and opened, Postmaster General
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
James Farley
James Farley
James Aloysius Farley was the first Irish Catholic politician in American history to achieve success on a national level, serving as Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and as Postmaster General simultaneously under the first two...
asked Roosevelt if he wanted to start work on a new post office in Hyde Park, a project he had wanted to undertake. Congress had authorized both post offices in 1937. Since Rhinebeck was a larger community with a more pressing need for a new post office, the president told Farley to give it priority first. The town helped matters along by selling the site of their 1872 town hall to the federal government for $16,000 ($ in contemporary dollars).
Roosevelt insisted that the new post office be built in the style of Kipsbergen, or the Beekman House, 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 homes in the region, but eventually it was built as Roosevelt wished.
Rudolph Stanley-Brown, a former Treasury Department architect then in private practice, handled the details of the design. Many of Kipsbergen's stones remained, and these were used in the post office's construction. Ultimately, 90% of the front wall was built of its stones. Local artist Olin Dows, head of the Treasury Relief Art Program, later painted a mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
inside of scenes from Rhinebeck's history.
Both Farley and Treasury Secretary
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Henry Morgenthau Jr. were present at the dedication ceremony on May 1, 1939, along with the crown prince
Frederick IX of Denmark
Frederick IX was King of Denmark from 20 April 1947 until his death on 14 January 1972....
and princess
Ingrid of Sweden
Ingrid of Sweden was a Swedish princess and the queen consort of King Frederick IX of Denmark.-Background:...
of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, who were touring the U.S. at the time. All of them ceremonially laid the first mortar
Mortar (masonry)
Mortar is a workable paste used to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The blocks may be stone, brick, cinder blocks, etc. Mortar becomes hard when it sets, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure. Modern mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder...
on the cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
.
The president spoke at length about the building and its design:
Three of the six stone post offices in the region whose design Roosevelt oversaw were based on historic buildings no longer extant at the time of their construction. Of those three, Rhinebeck's most closely replicates its original, and is the only one with an exhibit inside of some other remnants of that model. Its porch and lobby mimic a typical 18th-century colonial home's finishing. The paneling in the postmaster's office imitates a parlor of that era.
A few changes have been made to the building over time, such as the installation of modern light fixtures in the lobby and aluminum-muntined storm windows, but it has otherwise remained largely intact. In 1989 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, a contributing property
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the existing Rhinebeck Village Historic District
Rhinebeck Village Historic District
The Rhinebeck Village Historic District is located along US 9 and NY 308 in Rhinebeck, New York, United States. It is an area of contains 272 buildings in a variety of architectural styles dating from over 200 years of the settlement's history...
.