U.S. Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)

Infobox nrhp
name = U.S. Post Office
nrhp_type = cp


caption = The post office in 2007
location = Rhinebeck, NY
nearest_city = Kingston, NY
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 55
lat_seconds = 35
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 73
long_minutes = 54
long_seconds = 48
long_direction = W
area =
built = 1940
architect = Olin Dows, R. Stanley-Brown
architecture = Colonial Revival
added = 1989
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 88002419
mpsub =
governing_body = United States Postal ServiceThe 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.cite web|url=http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/frdcsb7.html|title=FDR and Dutchess County Stone Buildings|accessdate=2007-08-17]

Roosevelt spoke at length about the building and its design at the dedication ceremony on May 1, 1939: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. In 1989 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, a contributing property to the Rhinebeck Village Historic District.

References