View source for Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

{{short description|National Historic Site of the United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt<br />National Historic Site
| nrhp_type = nhs
| image = East facade of the President's house, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (edited).jpg
| caption = Springwood Estate at Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site.
| coordinates = {{coord|41|46|2|N|73|56|8|W|display=inline,title}}
| mapframe = yes
| mapframe-marker = building
| mapframe-zoom = 12
| mapframe-caption = Interactive map showing Springwood’s location
| location = [[Hyde Park, New York]]
| nearest_city = [[Poughkeepsie (city), New York|Poughkeepsie]]
| area = 800 acres (3.24 km<sup>2</sup>)
| built = 1800–1845
| architect =
| architecture = [[Federal architecture|Federal]], [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]]
| added = October 15, 1966
| designated_nrhp_type = January 15, 1944
| visitation_num = 108,611
| visitation_year = 2005
| refnum = 66000056
| mpsub =
| website = [http://www.nps.gov/hofr/ Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site]
| designated_other1 = New York State Register of Historic Places
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| designated_other1_number = 02707.000485
| designated_other1_abbr = NYSRHP
| designated_other1_date = June 23, 1980
}}
The '''Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site''' preserves the '''Springwood''' estate in [[Hyde Park, New York]], United States. Springwood was the birthplace, lifelong home, and burial place of the 32nd [[president of the United States]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] is buried alongside him. The [[National Historical Park|National Historic Site]] was established in 1945.
==History==
[[File:SpringWood Aug 2007.jpg|thumb|right|Springwood, the home where Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived with family, is now a National Historic Site]]
[[File:RoosevltsTomb.jpg|thumb|right|The [[grave]] of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt]]
[[File:John F. Kennedy speaking at Springwood, the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York (1960).jpg|thumb|right|[[John F. Kennedy]] at Springwood during his 1960 presidential campaign]]
===Early history===
In 1697, the English Crown awarded a {{convert|220|sqmi|km2|abbr=on}} land grant (the "[[Great Nine Partners Patent]]") to a group of nine businessmen from [[New York City]] who had purchased the land from the native [[Wappinger]] people.  The parcel extended from the [[Hudson River]] on the west to the border with [[Connecticut]] on the east. To ensure equal access to the river for all partners, the land along its shore was divided into nine "Water Lots"; Springwood is located on the one granted to William Creed.
While the early history of the house on the Springwood estate remains unclear, it is believed that the central portion of the present-day home is formed by a large [[Federal architecture|Federal style]] farmhouse constructed around the year 1800. In 1845 the estate was purchased by Josiah Wheeler, a merchant from New York City. He remodeled the structure in the then-fashionable [[Italianate architecture|Italianate style]], expanding it to 15 rooms with a three-story tower at the south end and front and rear piazzas spanning the length of the home.
===Roosevelt ownership===
In 1866, the estate, which had been reduced to approximately one square mile (2.5 square kilometers), was bought by [[James Roosevelt, Sr.]], Franklin D. Roosevelt's father, for [[United States dollar|US$]]40,000, at a time when a textile worker's earnings were less than a dollar a day.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nber.org/chapters/c2486.pdf |title=Archived copy of 'Economic Trends of the American Economy During the 19th Century'. Princeton University press (1960).|access-date=2018-03-09 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031140018/http://www.nber.org/chapters/c2486.pdf |archive-date=2017-10-31 }}, page 476</ref> The property featured a stable and horse track, which was important to James, an avid horse breeder.  Through his death, 34 years later in 1900, James made many improvements to the home and property. He enlarged the servants' wing, adding two rooms, and had a spacious [[carriage house]] built in the vicinity.
In 1882, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin]] was born in what was then the second floor tower bedroom at the south end of the home. At the time, it functioned as the master bedroom; the bedroom which he, and later his sons, used during boyhood is nearby on the same floor. In 1905, after he and [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] married, the young couple moved in with his mother, [[Sara Roosevelt|Sara]]. The estate remained the center of Roosevelt's life in all stages of his career.
In 1915, Franklin, together with his mother, undertook a final major enlargement and remodeling of the home. This both accommodated his growing family and created an environment suitable for entertaining political associates which reflected his ambitions. Roosevelt contributed many ideas for the new design, tempered by his mother's means. She commissioned the design work from the firm of [[Hoppin & Koen]], of New York City. The home was more than doubled in size by adding two large fieldstone wings (designed by Roosevelt), a tower, and a third story with a flat roof. The clapboard exterior was replaced with stucco and most of the porch was replaced with a balustraded fieldstone terrace and a small columned portico around the entrance. These alterations gave the exterior of the house the look of a {{citation needed span|text=[[Colonial Revival architecture|Colonial Revival]] mansion.|reason=This is an uncited POV claim, which needs an appropriate reference.|date=September 2023}} The interior, while retaining much of the original layout, was redesigned primarily with the aim of housing Roosevelt's growing collections of books, paintings, stamps, and coins. The remodeling work was finished within one year in 1916. Roosevelt also changed the appearance of the surrounding land by extensive tree plantings. Between 1911, when the large scale planting started, and Roosevelt's death in 1945, more than 400,000 trees were planted on the estate. Eventually, large portions of the estate were turned into an experimental forestry station under an agreement with the Forestry Department of [[Syracuse University]].
During his presidency from March 4, 1933, until his death on April 12, 1945, Franklin made almost 200 visits to Springwood, although he eventually built wheelchair-friendly [[Top Cottage]] nearby as a home of his own.  The main estate functioned as a "[[Summer White House]]" where the President hosted his political associates and other prominent national and international figures. In June 1939, when King [[George VI]] and [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Elizabeth]], accompanied by [[Prime Minister of Canada]] [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] as minister in attendance,<ref>{{Citation |last=King |first=William Lyon Mackenzie |author-link=William Lyon Mackenzie King |title=Diary of Mackenzie King |publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada |location=Ottawa |pages=377, 413–414, 533–685 |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/king/001059-119.02-e.php?&page_id_nbr=20105&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=bgajorjbf37d43pri9gimsmfv0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018083739/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/king/001059-119.02-e.php?&page_id_nbr=20105&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=bgajorjbf37d43pri9gimsmfv0 |archive-date=2012-10-18 |date=17 May 1939}}</ref> made the first visit of a reigning [[British monarch]] to the United States,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bousfield |first=Arthur |author2=Toffoli, Gary |title=Royal Spring: The Royal Tour of 1939 and the Queen Mother in Canada |publisher=Dundurn Press |year=1989 |location=Toronto |pages=60, 66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Go5p_CN8UQC |isbn=1-55002-065-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Lanctot| first=Gustave| author-link=Gustave Lanctot| title=Royal Tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Canada and the United States of America 1939| publisher=E.P. Taylor Foundation| year=1964| location=Toronto}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb| King| 1939| pp=[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/king/001059–119.02-e.php?&page_id_nbr=19972&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=bgajorjbf37d43pri9gimsmfv0 247]}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Bell |first=Peter |title=The Foreign Office and the 1939 Royal Visit to America: Courting the USA in an Era of Isolationism |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=603, 611 |date=October 2002 |url=http://www.transatlantic.uj.edu.pl/upload/_16ec_Bell.Royal.Visit.Isolationism.pdf |access-date=August 30, 2010 |doi=10.1177/00220094020370040601 |s2cid=159572988 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725204732/http://www.transatlantic.uj.edu.pl/upload/_16ec_Bell.Royal.Visit.Isolationism.pdf |archive-date=July 25, 2011 }}</ref> they were hosted at Springwood. Other guests included [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British prime minister]] [[Winston Churchill]], as well as European royalty such as [[Wilhelmina of the Netherlands|Queen Wilhelmina]], [[Juliana of the Netherlands|Princess Juliana]], and [[Beatrix of the Netherlands|Princess Beatrix]] of the [[Netherlands]], and [[Olav V of Norway|Crown Prince Olaf]] and [[Princess Märtha Louise of Sweden|Crown Princess Märtha]] of [[Norway]]. Further, Roosevelt used the estate as a retreat for himself and his political associates on the eves of three of the four elections in which he ran for president. When the incoming results indicated that he had won the election, he would go onto the front terrace to deliver his victory speech.
Roosevelt made his last visit to Springwood in the final 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 interred there are [[Fala (dog)|Fala]], their famous [[Scottish Terrier]], and Chief, a [[German Shepherd]] also owned by FDR.
===Donation to the United States===
In 1941, Roosevelt dedicated his papers and a new building to house them on the estate to the public, as the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum]]. In 1943—two years before he died in office—Roosevelt donated the entirety of the estate (except for [[Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site|Val-Kill]], which had been given to Eleanor) to the American people under the condition that his family maintained a [[life estate|lifetime right to usage]] of the property. On November 21, 1945, after the family had relinquished its rights, the estate was transferred to the [[U.S. Department of the Interior]]. Since then, the estate has been administered by the [[National Park Service]] as a [[National Historic Site (United States)|National Historic Site]] and is open to the public. In 2005, the site covered a total area of more than a square mile and received 108,611 visitors.
==Rooms==
===Entrance Hall===
The walls of the entrance hall are mostly covered with paintings from Roosevelt's collection. On display are mainly naval paintings as well as some historical cartoons. Specimens from his boyhood collection of birds are also on display, as well as a sculpture of him when he was 29. In the corner behind the main staircase is a manually operated trunk elevator, which the disabled president used to move between floors.
===Living room and library===
The living room and library was the place where Roosevelt worked on his private collections; he accumulated 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, campaign buttons, and medallions.
===Music room===
The music room (also known as the "[[Dresden]] Room" for the origin of some of the porcelain) is a formal parlor which contains many Chinese pieces of [[porcelain]] and [[lacquer-ware]]. These were acquired when the family of Roosevelt's mother stayed in China, where her father made a fortune in the China trade. Together with the adjacent dining room, this part of the house was the setting for the formal entertaining of guests. A collection of autographed photographs of some of the Roosevelts' more famous guests is kept in the room on the piano.
===Bedrooms of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt===
During the enlargement of the house in 1915 a suite of rooms was created for Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt in one of the new wings. Originally these rooms included a sitting room and two dressing rooms, but after Roosevelt was diagnosed with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness|poliomyelitis]] in 1921, one of the dressing rooms was converted into a separate bedroom for his wife Eleanor and the sitting room into a bedroom for his mother Sara.
===The "Snuggery"===
The Snuggery was used by Roosevelt's mother, Sara, for beginning her day and conducting her business of running the household. The room was created in its present form during the extensive remodeling of 1915 by a division of the old South Parlor into a gallery and the Snuggery. Because most of the furniture of the old parlor was retained despite the reduction in size, the Snuggery has a cluttered appearance.
== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File: FDR National Historic Site.JPG|Entrance to the FDR National Historic Site
File:HudsonTour085.JPG|South hallway on the main floor, leading into the living-room, with a view of the Snuggery door to the left
File:Roosevelt Statue.jpg|Statue of Roosevelt as a young man
File:Springwood_Study.jpg|Library and living room
File:FDR Bedroom at Springwood Estate.JPG|FDR's childhood bedroom
File:Horse_Stable_at_Springwood_Estate_August_2012.jpg|Horse stable
File:Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site-584.jpg|Outbuildings
File:Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, 2.jpg|Side of Springwood
</gallery>
==See also==
{{Portal|Hudson Valley}}
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum]]
* [[Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site]]
* [[Maritje Kill]]
* [[List of residences of presidents of the United States]]
* [[List of burial places of presidents and vice presidents of the United States]]
* [[Presidential memorials in the United States]]
==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist|2}}
;Sources
* ''Springwood: birthplace of Franklin Delano Roosevelt''. Photography by  Richard Cheek, text by Franklin D. Mares. Hyde Park Historical Association, Hyde Park, NY, 1993.
==Further reading==
* ''Great Houses of the Hudson River'', [[Michael Middleton Dwyer]], editor, with preface by [[Mark Rockefeller]], Boston, MA: [[Little, Brown and Company]], published in association with [[Historic Hudson Valley]], 2001. {{ISBN|082122767X}}.
==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.nps.gov/hofr/ Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site] - National Park Service
* [http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/82springwood/82springwood.htm "Springwood: Birthplace and Home to Franklin D. Roosevelt"], a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan
* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?151628-1/life-portrait-franklin-d-roosevelt "Life Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt"], from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Presidents: Life Portraits]]'', broadcast from the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, October 11, 1999
{{Franklin D. Roosevelt|state=extended}}
{{Eleanor Roosevelt}}
{{Registered Historic Places}}
{{Protected areas of New York}}
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[[Category:Birthplaces of individual people]]
[[Category:Eleanor Roosevelt]]
[[Category:Federal architecture in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Historic house museums in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Houses completed in 1800]]
[[Category:Houses in Hyde Park, New York]]
[[Category:Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States|Home]]
[[Category:Museums in Hyde Park, New York]]
[[Category:National Historic Sites in New York (state)]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York]]
[[Category:Presidential homes in the United States]]
[[Category:Presidential museums in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Roosevelt family residences|Franklin D.]]
[[Category:Tombs of presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:U.S. Route 9]]
[[Category:New York State Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County]]