United States Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)
government building in Rhinebeck, New York

The U.S. Post Office in Rhinebeck, New York serves the 12572 ZIP Code. It is located on Mill Street (US 9) just south of the intersection with NY 308 at the center of the village.
It is a stone Colonial Revival structure built in 1940, during the New Deal. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a native of nearby Hyde Park, took a personal interest in its design, as he did with other post offices in Dutchess County built during his administration. He chose a ruined historic house, whose stones were used in the post office, as its model, and spoke at its dedication. In 1989 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a contributing property to the Rhinebeck Village Historic District.
Building
The post office is a one-and-a-half-story fieldstone building with a low-sloping jerkin roof shingled in asbestos treated to look like wood. It flares out over a porch that runs the length of the eastern (front) elevation. Two large brick chimneys rise from the ends, both next to a small dormer window on the north and south faces.
The public source identifies “United States Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)” as government building in Rhinebeck, New York. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, States and Post.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2466417. Authority coordinates are 41.926, -73.913. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “United States Post Office (Rhinebeck, New York)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.