U.S. Post Office (Hyde Park, New York)
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| U.S. Post Office | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | Hyde Park, NY |
| Nearest city: | Poughkeepsie |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1941 |
| Architect: | R. Stanley Mills, Olin Dows |
| Architectural style(s): | Colonial Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | 1988 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 88002511 |
| Governing body: | U.S. Postal Service |
The U.S. Post Office in Hyde Park, New York serves the 12538 ZIP Code. It is a stone building in the Dutch Colonial Revival style, located on East Market Street just east of US 9.
The post office as an institution is of local historic importance. Hyde Park takes its name from its first post office, located in the Hyde Park Inn. The settlement's name was originally Stoutenburgh, but the new name took on wide use and eventually became official in 1812. Nine years later the town was separately organized under that name.[1]
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a native of Hyde Park, took a personal interest in the construction of the new building during the New Deal. He had personally made sure that new post offices in Poughkeepsie and later Rhinebeck, to the south and north, were built of fieldstone in that style. Postmaster General James Farley asked him if he wanted to address Hyde Park's needs next, but the president told him to get Rhinebeck's post office built first since it had the greater need.[2]
In his speech at the 1939 groundbreaking for the Rhinebeck post office, he jokingly warned Farley and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. that they would not keep their jobs unless they made sure that there would be federal money available to build a new post office in Hyde Park.[3]
He personally chose a 1772 clapboard house built (but by then demolished) for early settler John Bard as the model for the structure. Stone for the building was taken from stone walls on land once owned by Bard's son Samuel.[4] The next year, he helped lay the cornerstone for the new building[5], which opened the following year. Local artist Olin Dows painted murals in the lobby depicting Hyde Park's history, from Henry Hudson's Halve Maen docking in the nearby Hudson River during his 1609 voyage, to Britain's King George VI visiting Roosevelt at his house the year before.[6] In 1989 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Public art in the building caused a local controversy in 2001. The postmaster had instituted a local "Artist of the Month" program which, in October of that year, featured Fatgirl, a painting of the clothed torso and midsection of an obese woman by Audrey Martin. After the post office received several verbal and one written complaint, it was removed from the building. Protests of censorship from the local arts community drew nationwide sympathy and support, but the Postal Service defended its decision on the grounds that it is not an art gallery, and ended the program.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Margaret L. Marquez. Town of Hyde Park History. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
- ^ Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Remarks Before the Roosevelt Home Club. Hyde Park, New York, August 27, 1938. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
- ^ Address at the Dedication of the New Post Office in Rhinebeck, New York.. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
- ^ Rhoads, William. "FDR left mark on nation — and area's building", Poughkeepsie Journal, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
- ^ Places to Visit. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
- ^ Murals in the Hyde Park, New York, Post Office. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
- ^ "Fatgirl" removed from Post Office. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
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