US Post Office Dobbs Ferry
The US Post Office Dobbs Ferry is the post office for ZIP code 10522 serving Dobbs Ferry in Westchester County , New York , United States . It is a brick Colonial Revival- style building on the corner of Main and Oak Street in the center of the village .
The post office was built in 1936 as part of an extensive post office building program. With its detailed ornamentation, it is unusual for the Colonial Revival architectural style. Only two other post offices in rural New York state are designed in similar detail. Because of this, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Building
The post office is a one-story steel frame building with five by five bays and is located on a corner plot. The floor falls from the rear to the western facade; the Hudson River is only a short distance away in that direction. That is why it was built on a raised base. At the rear there is a three-bay extension.
The base and the facade are made of red bricks in a stretcher bond. The front section of the building in the depth of a yoke has a gable roof made of copper , the gables of which are designed as raised parapets . The rest of the building has a flat roof . A mural crown made of artificial stone frames the entire roof and is located on the front side between eaves and facades in a running wooden eaves . Bronze letters above the entrance identify the building as the Dobbs Ferry post office.
The entrance is in the center of the main facade. It is an archway with flanking wooden posts with a gable triangle above . The lintels are also made of bricks, with the keystone contrasting in color. Two iron lanterns frame the entrance.
Inside is the L-shaped counter hall, which includes four of the five yokes. The floor is made of orange-colored stone tiles, and there is a lambris on the walls that extends up to the height of the counter . The stucco ceiling is vaulted. The wooden frames of the notice boards and the windows, as well as the iron bars on the row of windows are original.
history
Dobbs Ferry had already had a post office under its previous names Wickquaequeeck and Greenburgh before the place was incorporated in 1872 and the name change took place. In 1915, the US Postal Service , which was then part of the Treasury Department, began to unify its branches in the country. This trend reached Dobbs Ferry in the early 1930s when the post office became one of 136 post offices in the state approved with an amendment to the Public Buildings Act of 1931 .
However , it was not until 1934 that the United States Congress managed to raise funds for the new Dobbs Ferry post office. In November 1934, the property was purchased for $ 11,700 and the owners of an existing retail and residential building were expropriated to make way for the new building. Congress then allocated $ 95,000 (adjusted for inflation: $ 1,766,000) for construction, and construction company Summit Brothers began construction. The new post office opened in 1936.
The design by the then chief architect of the Treasury Department, Louis A. Simon, adheres to the style of the Colonial Revival, which is common for most post offices that were built all over New York after 1905. Most of these structures were simple, spartan in some ways, and the ornate facade of the post office in Dobbs Ferry is a departure from the norm. In New York, only the Granville and Hudson Falls post offices have parapet gables and keystones above the windows.
The building has remained largely intact since its construction. Modern aluminum frame doors were installed at the entrance, as well as a modern lighting system. Most noticeable is the replacement of the original double staircase at the front entrance with a wheelchair ramp , as the Americans with Disabilities Act made federal buildings accessible .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Larry Gobrecht: National Register of Historic Places nomination form, US Post Office (Dobbs Ferry, New York) ( English ) November 1986. Retrieved on November 2 in 2009.
Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 53 " N , 73 ° 52 ′ 28" W.