He had written in 1928 of his desire to preserve the stone buildings in the Hudson Valley built by early Dutch settlers of the region, including his ancestors, which he feared was disappearing.

[4] Earlier in the decade, nearby Beacon had received a new post office in local fieldstone designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood.

When Poughkeepsie's turn came, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau demanded that it be made of irregular fieldstone in the Dutch style, modeled after a demolished county courthouse that had been built in 1809.

[2] The final building included a lobby with five murals painted by artists commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts.

On October 22, 2008, the cupola, undergoing renovation at the time, was damaged by a fire, causing the building to be closed for a few days.