FDR and
Dutchess County Stone Buildings
Historic Stone Buildings
Springwood
Stoutenbourgh House
Val-Kill
Hyde Park Library
Poughkeepsie Post Office
Rhinebeck Post Office
Wappingers and Ellenville Post Offices
Hyde Park Post Office
FDR Library
Hyde Park Schools
Top Cottage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FDR and Dutchess County Stone Buildings

As the New Deal progressed, public works programs were evident throughout Dutchess County, and President Roosevelt remained actively involved. In 1938 plans for a new post office Wappingers Falls surfaced and by this point, President Roosevelt was quite adamant about his role in the design. In a letter to the project's manager he wrote, "I have very definite ideas about the type of building - preferably a long, low bldg. with an attach and built of fieldstone" and that he would "take up the design" the next time he was in the area. As his model, he chose the Brouier-Mesier House in Wappingers Falls and used the architect from the Rhinebeck Post Office R. Stanley Brown.

Fieldstone public buildings were so prominent in Dutchess County that towns demanded that they too have a similar building. After the dedication of the Rhinebeck Post Office, residents of Ellenville telegraphed the President because their new post office was being designed in brick even though they had ninety-nine pre-Revolutionary War stone houses in the Rondout Valley. FDR came to their rescue, declaring, two days before bids were to be let, "I will stop that brick right away"! The final design was a composite of typical features of stone houses, and it was approved personally by President Roosevelt.

Wappingers Post Office

Wappingers Falls Post Office

Brouier-Mesier House

Brouier-Mesier House

Ellenville Post Office

Ellenville Post Office

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FDR Library Logo Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
4079 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, New York
1-800-FDR-VISIT
roosevelt.library@nara.gov