U.S. Border Station, Overton, Rouses Point, NY

Location: 19 St Johns Hwy, Rouses Point, NY 12979

The Rouses Point Border Inspection Station at Overton Corner in Rouses Point, New York is one of seven existing border inspection stations built between 1931 and 1934 along the New York and Canadian border. Georgian Revival in style, the building was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, James A. Wetmore, during tenure of the Secretary of the Treasury, Ogden L. Mills, and constructed between 1931 and 1932. At the time of its construction, Louis A. Simon was Superintendent of the Architectural Section. Border stations were constructed by the federal government in New England along the border with Canada during the 1930s and several common plans and elevations can be discerned among the remaining stations. Rouses Point-Overton Corner shares with the others a residential scale, a Neo-colonial style, and an organization to accommodate functions of both customs and immigration services.

Border Stations are associated with four important events in United States history: the imposition of Prohibition between 1919 and 1933; enactment of the Elliot-Fernald public buildings act in 1926 which was followed closely by the Depression; and the popularity of the automobile whose price was increasingly affordable thanks to Henry Ford’s creation of the industrial assembly line. The stations were constructed as part of the government’s program to improve its public buildings and to control casual smuggling of alcohol, which most often took place in cars crossing the border. Their construction was also seen as a means of giving work to the many locally unemployed.

The Rouses Point-Overton Corner border station is one of the best preserved in New York. It is the only station to have had an addition made to it. While the border stations have all sustained systematic alterations, they have retained, in varying degrees, most of their original fabric. This station is on both exterior and interior a fine example of the building type, its character defining features well-maintained and intact, the addition a compatible and equally well-crafted one.

Facts

• Architect: James A. Wetmore
• Construction Date: 1931 
• GSA Building Number: NY0196ZZ
• Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places