page_title: Rhinebeck Village Historic District
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rhinebeck Village Historic District / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Rhinebeck U.S. Post Office — in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. 1940 stone Colonial Revival style building by the WPA—Works Progress Administration. A contributing property in the Rhinebeck Village Historic District, and on the National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York.
context_page_description: The Rhinebeck Village Historic District is located along US 9 and NY 308 in Rhinebeck, New York, United States. It is an area of 167 acres contains 272 buildings in a variety of architectural styles dating from over 200 years of the settlement's history. It was recognized as a historic district and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as a cohesive area of preserved historic buildings.
  Its properties were developed primarily from the Colonial era to the end of the 19th century, when the district reached its present form. Three U.S. presidents have passed through here, most significantly, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who chose the design for a new post office during the 1930s, and spoke at its dedication. It is now one of the district's contributing properties. Today the area has become a popular local attraction, many of them housing boutiques and other small businesses. The streets are lined with large shade trees, bluestone sidewalks and other historic features.
context_section_description: European settlement in the Rhinebeck area dates to 1686, when a group of Dutch crossed the river from Kingston and bought 2,200 acres (890 ha) of land from the local Iroquois tribes. The name Rhinebeck is a combination of the name of the man who founded the town, Wilhelmus (William) Beekman (1623-1707), and his native town, Rhineland. Beekman was one of the original grantees of the area that became Beekmantown.
  Later, Wilhelmus Beekman's son, Col. Henry Beekman (1652-1716), obtained a patent for the land, and saw a need for development to begin. The town of Beekman, Dutchess County, New York, is named for Col. Henry Beekman, who owned a grant there in 1703. He brought into the area Caspar Landsman, a miller, and William Traphagen, a builder.
  In 1703 the New York colonial assembly approved money for the construction of the King's Highway, later known as the Albany Post Road and today most of Route 9.  Three years later Traphagen bought a tract of land in Beekman's patent where the King's Highway intersected the Sepasco Indian Trail, the route today followed by Market Street. He built a house and tavern on the trail a short distance west of the King's Highway. This was the beginning of Rhinebeck.
  A decade later, in 1715, Beekman's son brought in 35 Palatine Germans who had fled religious persecution at home and had just concluded an attempt to produce naval stores for the British government on the lands of Robert Livingston to the north in what is now Columbia County. The village grew with the new arrivals. New trades established themselves, and in 1733 the Reformed Dutch Church had been built. Its first building was on the site of its current one at Mill and South streets. In 1766 the beginnings of the current Beekman Inn were erected. It has remained in operation as a hotel ever since.
  In the mid-1770s, a soldier named Richard Montgomery moved into the village with his new wife, a member of the Livingston family. He had just begun to settle into life as a farmer when the Revolution began. After being elected to the New York Provincial Congress, he was commissioned a general in the Continental Army, and died at the end of 1775 in the Battle of Quebec. The cottage still stands, although it was moved to 77 Livingston Street, where it houses the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter; the street it was on was later named in his honor.
  After independence, the village continued to grow. The Town of Rhinebeck, which contains the village, was organized in 1788. The current Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1802, making it the oldest church in the village. The current route of East Market Street was laid out the same year during construction of the Ulster-Saulsbury Turnpike, later to become Route 308.
  Rhinebeck continued to attract politicians. George Washington visited in 1796, dining at Bogardus's, the second Traphagen tavern, when he stayed at a nearby friend's house. During the 1804 gubernatorial election, both Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis used taverns in Rhinebeck as campaign headquarters.
  The village was incorporated in 1834. Ten years later, Alexander Jackson Davis built the Henry Delamater House at 44 Montgomery Street. It still stands today, one of the best examples of the early use of the Gothic Revival style in American residential architecture.
  By the 1850s, Rhinebeck had grown even further and acquired a reputation as a woodworking center. The town's name on milled products was a symbol of quality, and its furniture was shipped as far away as South Carolina. It was said to have no better in making carriages, coaches and sleighs. Some makers of clothing also achieved national prestige. The area was also acquiring a cachet as a location for the country estates of the Gilded Age wealthy.
  In the late 1880s the village was visited by a president-elect. Levi P. Morton, a former congressman and ambassador to France, had settled in Bois Dore on Mill Street. Benjamin Harrison chose him to be his running mate on the 1888 Republican ticket. Harrison was visiting him in Rhinebeck later that year when word came to the
caption: 1939 post office
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK C340 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:17 14:21:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "930", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5400", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "27/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:20 18:55:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:07:20 18:55:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2406", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1503", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "804", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "125", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}