US Post Office-Hettinger

The Hettinger Post Office is significant under Criteria A and C on a state and local level as one of a small group of 20 extant federally-built post offices in North Dakota constructed between 1900-1940. Under Criterion 1, this post office is associated with various federal policies in post office funding, design, and method of construction in the early 20th century. Under Criterion c, this facility shares the distinctive characteristics of federally-funded post offices as a property type built in North Dakota before the Second World War. The major areas of significance are Politics/Government and Architecture. The Hettinger Post Office is significant at the state level as one of nine post office buildings built during the period between 1932-1940 when most of the current facilities in the country were constructed. It is one of six post offices in North Dakota designed in the "Starved Classicism" style from standard plans emanating from the Treasury Department. While it is not the work of a master, it shares the design attributes of the small group of federally-funded post offices in the state. Locally, it is the only federal building in Hettinger.

The new 1938 Hettinger Post Office was one of 321 post office buildings approved for financing under the $60 million dollar emergency construction fund authorized in the deficiency appropriation act by the Treasury Department in July 1936. The other North Dakota post office funded under this act was at Langdon (The Adams County Record, July 2, 1936, p. 1). The local movement for a new post office building was begun in the summer of 1935 by the local Lions Club and North Dakota congressmen and was aided by a survey of North Dakota facilities done by the U.S. Post Office Department with data sent to Washington, D.C. In the case of Hettinger, the call for bids on a suitable lot went out only six days after the announcement that Hettinger was to receive a new facility (Ibid.). Although mention was not made in the local newspaper about the role played by the Lions Club, it was noted that postal receipts had been up slightly in the year 1935 as compared to 1934 (The Adams County Record, January 2, 1936, p. 1). A page one article in The Adams County Record on October 1, 1936, announced that the site at the corner of Adams and Main had been selected for the new facility. Blueprints were rapidly put together from standard designs and the call for bids on the construction work was released on June 3, 1937 (The Adams County Record, June 17, 1937, p. 1). The winning bid was submitted by Henry Heuther of Ashley, North Dakota. Although the Treasury Department had estimated $65,000 for the building, Heuther came in at $44,800, far below the estimated cost, and was prepared to begin construction as soon as his equipment was on the site (The Adams County Record, July 29, 1937, p. 1).

The Hettinger Post Office was completed in a little under twelve months. There is no record in the newspaper of local employment and the contractor may have brought in his own men from Ashley, North Dakota. Workers began pouring concrete on October 25, 1937, because it took two months for two frame houses to be moved from the new post office site. By March, 1938, the new facility was nearing completion and landscaping and site terracing had begun. The dedication for the new building occurred on July 27, 1938 (The Adams County Record, Oct. 28, 1937: March 17, 1938: July 7, 21, 28, 1938).