United States Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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U.S. Post Office
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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East elevation, 2007
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | 6383 Mill St. Rhinebeck, NY |
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| Nearest city | Kingston |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1940 |
| Architect | Olin Dows, R. Stanley-Brown |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| Part of | Rhinebeck Village Historic District |
| MPS | U.S. Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR |
| NRHP reference No. | 88002419 |
| Added to NRHP | May 11, 1989 |
The U.S. Post Office in Rhinebeck, New York, is a special building. It handles mail for the 12572 ZIP code. You can find it on Mill Street (US 9) in the middle of the village.
This post office was built in 1940. It has a Colonial Revival look, made from stone. This was during a time called the New Deal. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was very interested in its design. He grew up nearby in Hyde Park.
President Roosevelt even chose an old, ruined house as the model for the post office. Stones from that old house were used to build it! He also spoke at its opening ceremony. In 1989, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it's an important historical site.
Contents
Exploring the Post Office Building
The Rhinebeck post office is a one-and-a-half-story building. It's made of fieldstone, which are natural stones found in fields. The roof is low and sloped, covered with shingles that look like wood.
A porch runs along the front of the building. It's made of wood and supported by square pillars. The floor of the porch is made of bluestone. At each end of the front, there are large cornerstones, also of bluestone.
One cornerstone tells about the people involved in building it. The other says the building is a copy of the 1700 Beekman House. It also mentions that stones from the old Beekman House ruins were used here. The main door looks like a Dutch door.
Inside the Post Office
When you step inside, you'll find a lobby that stretches across the front. The floor is made of oak wood. The walls have pine wainscoting (wood panels) that go up to a ceiling with exposed wooden beams.
You can see two display cases inside. They hold more pieces from the original Beekman House. Above the wood panels, there are murals. These paintings show scenes from Rhinebeck's history. One mural even shows the groundbreaking ceremony for the post office. Two original oak counters are still used today.
Outside Features
A long part of the building extends to the back. This is where the parking lot is, which you can reach from West Market Street. Along the sidewalk leading to the entrance from Mill Street, there are two old cast iron lamps.
History of the Rhinebeck Post Office
Even before he became governor of New York in 1928, President Roosevelt loved fieldstone. This was a popular building material for early Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley. His own family used it.
In the 1920s, Roosevelt made sure the library in Hyde Park, built for his father, used stone. As president, he also made sure new post offices in Beacon and Poughkeepsie used fieldstone. The Poughkeepsie post office even looked like an old courthouse from 1809.
Roosevelt's Vision for Rhinebeck
After the Poughkeepsie post office was finished, Postmaster General James Farley asked Roosevelt about building a new one in Hyde Park. Congress had approved both post offices in 1937. But Roosevelt decided Rhinebeck needed a new post office more.
Rhinebeck was a bigger town and needed the new building sooner. The town helped by selling the land where their old town hall stood to the government for $16,000.
Roosevelt really wanted the new post office to look like Kipsbergen, also known as the Beekman House. This was an old house nearby where some of his ancestors had lived. It had a similar steep front roof. The Beekman House had burned down in the early 1900s.
Some local historians didn't think this style was typical for Dutch homes in the area. But in the end, the post office was built just as Roosevelt wanted.
Building and Art Details
Rudolph Stanley-Brown, an architect, designed the details of the building. Many of the original stones from Kipsbergen were still around. These stones were used to build the new post office. In fact, 90% of the front wall was built with these old stones.
A local artist named Olin Dows later painted a mural inside the post office. These murals show different scenes from Rhinebeck's history.
Dedication Ceremony
The dedication ceremony for the post office happened on May 1, 1939. Many important people were there. These included Postmaster General James Farley and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr.. Even the crown prince and princess of Denmark and Iceland attended! They were visiting the U.S. at the time. Everyone helped lay the first mortar on the cornerstone.
President Roosevelt spoke a lot about the building's design. He said they wanted architecture that would last and fit the area's history. He emphasized using local materials like fieldstone. He wanted to copy the early Dutch style, which he found beautiful and strong.
Legacy of the Design
Roosevelt oversaw the design of six stone post offices in the region. Three of them were based on historic buildings that no longer existed. The Rhinebeck post office is the best copy of its original model. It's also the only one with an exhibit inside showing pieces of the old house.
The post office's porch and lobby look like an 18th-century colonial home. The wood panels in the postmaster's office copy a parlor from that time.
Over the years, a few small changes have been made. For example, modern lights were put in the lobby. But the building has mostly stayed the same. In 1989, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It's also part of the Rhinebeck Village Historic District.
