Hyde Park, NY

The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site preserves the Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York, overlooking the Hudson River Valley. Springwood was the birthplace, lifelong home, and burial place of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and established as a National Historic Site in 1945.

Roosevelt was born in 1882, in what was then the second floor tower bedroom at the south end of the house.  After marrying Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed, in 1905, the young couple moved in with his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt.  It was here that he and Eleanor raised four sons and one daughter.

The estate remained the center of Roosevelt's life in all stages of his career. During his presidency alone, he came for almost 200 visits. The estate functioned as a "Summer White House", where the President hosted his political associates as well as other prominent national and international figures. In June 1939, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited, Sara was worried that they might be offended by her son's prominently displayed collection of anti-Brit political cartoons about the American Revolution and the War of !812.  When the King saw them, he remarked that the President had some that were not in HIS collection!  

Other guests included Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, as well as European royalty such Queen Wilhelmina, Princess Juliana, and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, and Crown Prince Olaf and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway.

Roosevelt used the estate as a retreat for himself and his political associates on the eves of all elections in which he ran for president. When the incoming results indicated that he had won the election, he would go outside onto the front terrace to deliver his acceptance speech.

The living room and library was the place were Roosevelt worked on his private collections, accumulating a personal library of approximately 14,000 volumes, over 2,000 naval paintings, prints, and lithographs, over 300 bird specimens, over 200 ship models, 1.2 million stamps, as well as thousands of coins, banknotes, and campaign buttons.

Roosevelt made his last visit to Springwood in the last week of March 1945, about two weeks before his death. At his own wish, he was buried near the sundial in the Rose Garden on April 15, 1945. His wife was buried at his side after her death in 1962. Also buried here are Fala, the famous scottish terrier, and Chief, a German Shepherd also owned by FDR.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, is the first presidential library built in the United States and was conceived and built under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1939 to 1940.  It was built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain, and constructed on 16 acres in Hyde Park, New York, donated by the President and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The library resulted from the President's decision that a separate facility was needed to house the vast quantity of historical papers, books, and memorabilia he had accumulated during a lifetime of public service and private collecting.

Prior to Roosevelt's Presidency, the final fate of Presidential papers was left to chance. Although a valued part of the nation's heritage, the papers of chief executives were private property which they took with them upon leaving office.

Some were sold or destroyed and thus either scattered or lost to the nation forever. Others remained with families, but inaccessible to scholars for long periods of time. The fortunate collections found their way into the Library of Congress and private repositories.  We are fortunate that FDR started this historic precedence.

FDR is one of my favorite Presidents.  He was elected for a remarkable four terms, but died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945.  He guided the nation through the worst economic turbulence of the Great Depression and through WWII almost to its end.  My dad was one of the 1 in 4 Americans who was unemployed, hopping freight trains all across Texas in search of work, mostly picking cotton. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps at the age of 25. FDR's leadership helped save his life and that of our nation.  For that, I will be forever grateful.

Just down the river is the Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt Mansion, a premier example of the country palaces built by wealthy industrialists during the Gilded Age.

The site includes 211 acres  of the original larger property historically named Hyde Park. Situated on the east bank of the Hudson River,

the property includes pleasure grounds with views of the river and the distant Catskill Mountains,

formal gardens, natural woodlands, and numerous auxiliary structures. The grounds also include Italian Gardens that have been restored by the volunteer Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association. Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938) purchased the property in 1895 for use as a seasonal country residence.

FDR wanted to acquire the property for the US Government in 1939 in order to use it as a museum and an example of the wealth and opulence of the Gilded Age.  He negotiated a deal with their favorite niece and heiress to purchase the property for the tidy sum of $1.00.

Mills-Norrie State Park is five miles north of Hyde Park and is a lovely, sylvan and quiet place to call home during our stay over this October weekend.