OGDENSBURG -- The U.S. Post Office will be depicted on the Ogdensburg Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Christmas ornament, voters at the recent Boys and Girls Club Expo decided. It will be available in the fall.

It received 38 votes. The Robert McEwen Customs House came in second with 15 votes. The General Curtis Monument had 12 votes and Claxton-Hepburn Memorial Hospital received 10.

Ogdensburg Post Office and Custom House Building is located at 431 State Street and stands in a small block bounded by State, Knox, Spinner and Crescent streets. Originally designed as a combined Post Office and customs house, the building was constructed in 1868-1870 with exterior walls of Berea sandstone and was completed on May 31, 1870. The stonecutter was William Congalton. Albert B. Mullett was the architect. The three-story structure housed the post office, a federal courtroom and the offices of the collector of internal revenue and the special agent of the treasury department. A bonded warehouse was in the basement. In 1870, the front of the building faced Crescent Street, then called Water Street. The dome was removed in October 1906.

The first public function in this building was a society ball for charity, with donations going to the Industrial School for Girls in Ogdensburg. The ball in the U.S. Courtroom on Feb. 22, 1870.

Two years later, on Aug. 7, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was honored with a public reception.

The Oswegatchie Customs District was created March 2, 1811 and included Ogdensburg, Hammond, Louisville, Massena, Morristown and Waddington. Its headquarters were here from 1870 until July 1, 1913 when the Oswegatchie, Cape Vincent and Champlain Districts merged as the St. Lawrence District. The headquarters of the St. Lawrence Customs District moved Sept.16, 1928 to the historic Parish Stone Store at 127 North Water St.

The building was named to the National Historic Register in 1977. Historic information about the US Post Office was excerpted from the “Historic Ogdensburg” brochure, which was revised in December 1995. For more Ogdensburg history, go to www. ogdensburg.org/history.html

More info: 393-3620.