Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Franklin Roosevelt Hyde Park Wealth

From his birth in 1882 Franklin Roosevelt belonged to a tight-knit group that valued tradition and continuity. A major player in the events of the 20^th century and a man whose life was turned upside down by personal tragedy, FDR was sustained by constants: a large family, old friends, and the house and grounds of Springwood. Franklin’s father James, who bought the house in 1867, was seventh in a line of Roosevelts who were prominent members of New York City society. The Roosevelts had ties to the Hudson River Valley dating back to the 17^th century, but it was not until 1818 that Franklin Roosevelt’s great grandfather moved to the Hyde Park area. They were wealthy, though not on a scale with the neighboring Vanderbilts. In any case, James Roosevelt disapproved of ostentation, and Springwood was modest compared to many of the estates that lined the Hudson above New York.

Like other families of their class the Roosevelts spent the winter social season in New York City. They also owned a summer house on the Canadian island of Campobello, but Springwood was home. While James was a careful manager of his inherited wealth, making money was not the center of his life. He preferred to live the life of an English country squire – seeing to his grounds. Sara shared James’s affection for the place, declaring that the Roosevelts and other Hudson Valley gentry were "living life as it should be." To young FDR, whose father passed on to him his love for the outdoors, the estate’s woods and fields were paradise. Springwood remained the center of his life until he left for boarding school at 14. In his later years FDR reminisced about his childhood here: "In thinking back to my earliest days, I am impressed by the peacefulness and regularity of things both in respect to place and people."

FDR: Country Gentleman

After James Roosevelt died in 1900, Sara and Franklin, then a freshman at Harvard, continued to live in the house. When he married Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905, the young couple moved in with Sara, in whose name the house remained until her death in 1941. Franklin’s work and political career required that the family live elsewhere for long periods, but they returned to Springwood whenever possible. During his years as governor of New York and President, Springwood was the nucleus of his life and career. It was haven and political headquarters, and it was here that he entertained numerous dignitaries. Throughout his presidency he returned some 200 times for temporary respite from Washington and for the nourishment Springwood gave him. By 1944, though, ill and weary from the intensity of the war effort, there was a note of finality when he said: "All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River."

In 1867, 15 years before Franklin D. Roosevelt was born, his father James Roosevelt bought the house at Springwood. It was a large farmhouse built around 1800, but James, and later Sara and Franklin, transformed it into something grander. The previous owner had already built a three-story tower and a full-length covered porch. James added two rooms, enlarged the servants’ wing, and built a large carriage house for his prized horses and carriages. In 1915 Franklin and his mother added a tower on the right and large fieldstone wings, replaced the clapboard exterior with stucco, raised the pitched roof to create a flat-roofed third story, and replaced most of the porch with a large fieldstone terrace with balustrade and a small columned portico. Franklin also planted many varieties of trees on the grounds, eventually turning large sections of the estate into an experimental forestry station. Some of his work is still in evidence. The house, too, retains his stamp. Four times he stood on the terrace on election nights to greet well-wishers. When he was here, he conducted the business of the presidency from his office. In the main hall are his boyhood collection of stuffed birds and a bronze sculpture of him in 1911 when he was 29 and serving his first term in the New York State Senate. Formal entertaining took place in the Dresden Room and the Dining Room, while the family liked to gather in the more casual Living Room/Library. Here, too, Roosevelt could pursue his hobbies, poring over his stamp collection or building ship models. Upstairs is the Birth Room, with the bed in which he was born, and his Boyhood Bedroom, later used by each of his sons in turn. Prime Minister Winston Churchhill and King George VI, among other notables, stayed in other rooms off the same hall. The bedroom he used as President remains as it was during his last stay in March 1945, shortly before his death. He loved this room, partly because of the beautiful view across the south lawn and down the Hudson River.