US Post Office-Beacon
National Register of Historic Places

US Post Office-Beacon

Beacon, Dutchess County, New York
Listed
November 17, 1988
Type
Building
Period
Colonial
Ref No.
88002456

About this property

The U.S. Post Office in Beacon, New York, is located on Main Street (New York State Route 52 Business). It serves the ZIP Code 12508, covering the entire city of Beacon and some of the neighboring areas of the Town of Fishkill. It is a stone structure in the Dutch Colonial Revival architectural style built in the mid-1930s. In 1988 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with many other older post offices in the state. While its style was not uncommon for post offices of the era, its fieldstone exterior is. Only a few other New Deal post offices in the state, most of them in Dutchess County towns along the Hudson River, used it. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's preferred that new post offices in his native region echo the architectural preferences of his Dutch ancestors who had been among the earliest settlers of the Hudson Valley, and the success of the Beacon post office may have encouraged him in that respect. It was also the only federal building in New York designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who lived in Idaho and primarily worked on buildings in the national parks of the West, closer to his home. Inside the building, Charles Rosen painted a map of the Hudson Valley on the lobby walls, in addition to some murals depicting historic events in the area. Both interior and exterior remain largely as originally constructed.

Location

369 Main St.
Beacon, Dutchess County, New York
41.50412, -73.98066

Categories

ARTPOLITICS/GOVERNMENTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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Nearby Historic Sites

National Biscuit Company Carton Making and Printing Plant
Civil War
0.3 mi
Lower Main Street Historic District
Listed
0.4 mi
Bogardus-DeWindt House
Industrial
0.4 mi
Trinity Methodist Church
Industrial
0.6 mi
Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill Landing
Listed
0.6 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Fort Montgomery
1777Revolutionary War
6.9 mi
Battle of Fort Clinton
1777Revolutionary War
7.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was US Post Office-Beacon listed on the National Register?

US Post Office-Beacon was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1988.

What type of historic resource is US Post Office-Beacon?

US Post Office-Beacon is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for US Post Office-Beacon?

The period of significance for US Post Office-Beacon is recorded as the colonial era.

Can I research the history near US Post Office-Beacon?

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