Windsor, Vermont: Post Office brochure

A one-sheet brochure featuring the Post Office in Windsor, Vermont. From the brochure: Windsor was one of the first five Vermont towns to receive a post office in 1784, but the United States government took another 75 years to give it an official home. Ammi B. Young (1798-1874), a Lebanon, New Hampshire, native and the first supervising architect for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, designed the post office in the Italianate style to recall the architecture of the Roman Republic. The formal, symmetrical arrangement of windows and doors and bold ornament convey a sense of authority. The building had a first-floor post office and a second-floor federal courthouse. Young used the Italianate style in many of the federal buildings constructed throughout the country during his tenure in the 1850s. Other Young designs include an identical courthouse in Rutland, Vermont, now the Rutland Free Library, as well as Vermont’s second state house in Montpelier, destroyed by fire in 1857. Look closely to discover one of the most historically significant features of the building. The rusticated “quoins” decorating the corners of the building, as well as other details, may look like cut stone but are made of cast iron. Young used this material in the building to comply with a new federal law requiring fireproof construction. Modern technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution made cast iron readily available. Strong structural iron beams permitted more windows than was possible with timber framing. The Windsor Post Office opened in 1859 and is one of the three oldest federal post offices in continuous use in the United States." Funding for this item was provided in part through a 2007 Preserve America grant to the Town of Windsor, Vermont (grant number 50-07-PA-3038) for the project Welcome to Windsor. The grant was administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Preserve America is a federal initiative that encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy our priceless cultural and natural heritage. The goals of the program include a greater shared knowledge about the nation's past, strengthened regional identities and local pride, increased local participation in preserving the country's cultural and natural heritage assets, and support for the economic vitality of our communities.

Windsor, Vermont: Post Office brochure

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