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US Post Office-Wappingers Falls (now Wappingers Falls Police Department)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Building in 2007
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Location	2 South Ave., Wappingers Falls, NY
Nearest city	Poughkeepsie
Coordinates	41°35′49″N 73°55′05″W / 41.59694°N 73.91806°W / 41.59694; -73.91806
Area	less than one acre
Built	1940
Architect	R. Stanley Brown
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
Part of	Wappingers Falls Historic District; US Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR (ID84002380)
MPS	US Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR
NRHP reference No.	88002440
Added to NRHP	May 11, 1989

Formerly the Wappingers Falls Village Hall this building now houses the Police Department. It is located at the corner of South Avenue (NY 9D) and East Main Street in the village of Wappingers Falls, Dutchess County, New York.

History

It was originally built in 1940 as the village's new post office, a Works Progress Administration project. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a personal interest in the project, as he already had with new post offices in other Dutchess County communities. He wanted it to be built of fieldstone in the style of many Dutch colonial houses in the Hudson Valley, and chose the Brewer-Mesier House in the village as the model for its design. R. Stanley Miller, a local architect who had already designed the similar Rhinebeck post office, was assigned the job.

In 1989, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It had already been a contributing property to the Wappingers Falls Historic District, added to the Register five years earlier. The U.S. Postal Service has since had to move to a larger building a few blocks away on East Main. The village moved most of its functions here and built a new wing — clapboard, not stone, but otherwise consistent with the original design — on the rear of the building to house its police department.

Murals

The former post office, now serving as a police station, houses two murals by Henry Billings, commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. These murals depict different views of the town's waterfall, capturing distinct moments in time. The building's proximity to the actual waterfall makes it conveniently accessible. The murals are painted on chestnut panels and occupy the triangular space created by the pitched ceiling of the building. Positioned at opposite ends of the structure, the two views face each other. The 1780 mural draws inspiration from the diary of the Marquis de Chastellux, featuring a conversation between the Marquis and Peter Mesier, whose house served as the model for the post office building. The 1880 scene depicts the falls during their heyday as a significant source of industrial water power, drawing from an old painting.

See also

• Wappingers Falls Historic District

Other area post office buildings whose design Roosevelt influenced:

• U.S. Post Office (Beacon, New York)
• U.S. Post Office (Ellenville, New York)
• U.S. Post Office (Hyde Park, New York)
• U.S. Post Office (Poughkeepsie, New York)
• U.S. Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Wappingers and Ellenville Post Offices". Archived from the original on 2007-07-12. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
3. "Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original (Searchable database) on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2016-03-01. Note: This includes Larry E. Gobrecht (December 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: U.S. Post Office, Wappingers Falls, New York" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-03-01. and Accompanying five photographs
4. "Living New Deal", Department of Geography, Univ. of California, Berkeley

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• Former post office buildings
• Village halls in the United States
• Works Progress Administration in New York (state)
• Government buildings completed in 1940
• National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York
• Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
• Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in New York (state)
• Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Colonial Revival architecture in New York (state)
• City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)