The Roosevelts of Hyde Park, New York

                                              The Roosevelts of Hyde Park

It was one of those golden days of summer along the Hudson River Valley in eastern New York. It was 78 degrees and the bright sun overhead was warming us. We had crossed the majestic Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and were now following scenic Rte. # 9 Northbound along the riverbank.

  We were in search of the Roosevelt estate and the FDR Presidential Museum on its grounds. The area is replete with the colonial American history of  the old Dutch Burghers who had settled the area in the 1600’s, the Roosevelts among them. The Rockerfeller’s estate at KYKUIT lay just south of here. The fabled Vanderbilt mansion was a few miles north and the majestic Olympian social heights of the Astor family home lay some 15 miles north, near the village of Rhinebeck.

The FDR Museum sign led us along a narrow Parkway to the low-slung, single-story expanse of the FDR visitor’s center. It was just after 9 A.M and we were among the first to arrive for the day. Inside the center, a row of ticket kiosks greeted us. A Park Ranger advised us to buy the “National Parks Pass.” For $10 people over 62 years of age can enter any National park and bring three guests with them for life. Such a deal. The Presidential Museum was a separate entity and we purchased entry tickets, which are good for two days, for $7 each. We signed up for the 9:30 A.M tour of the estate and grounds and then proceeded to the spacious auditorium to watch a 22-minute introductory film on FDR and his life.

The span of FDR’s public life runs from 1910, when he was sent to Albany as a N.Y. State Senator, through his years around WW I where he served as an assistant secretary of the Navy, through the 1920’s where he gained national exposure offering NY Governor’s Al Smith’s name for President and then ran himself as a V.P. candidate. FDR also served a term as N.Y, Governor before he was elected President. He then served through the tumultuous period that encompassed the great Depression and World War II. That is a lot of history  to cram into in a 22-minute film, but they did a decent job of it.

After the film, we gathered in the central lobby of the visitor’s center to assemble for our walking tour. The tiled floor displayed a bas-relief of the topography of this neck of the woods and all of the various Roosevelt homes that sat on the estate. A gift shop of FDR memorabilia and a small snack shop completed the center.

   A docent tour guide greeted us and explained the brief history of the area and the Roosevelt family. Isaac Roosevelt had been among the first to settle here in the mid 1700’s .The 1550 acre estate has fronted 12 acres along the Hudson River and ran four miles eastward into the wooded interior. By their own admission, the family was a bunch of “Tight fisted Dutchmen.” For generations, they raised much of what the family consumed on the estate. Isaac sold rum and molasses to the American Continental army and later partnered with Alexander Hamilton to found the Bank of New York. Five Roosevelts would serve as an assistant secretary of the Navy, establishing a tradition of Public service in the family. FDR’s father James was a financeer who was President of the Columbia Railway that ran behind their estate along the Hudson, before the Vanderbilts bought the line up to help form the New York Central RR. The family was landed gentry and among the early social elite.

The guide led us out into the estate. Thousands of trees had been planted and harvested here over the generations. Stands of Oak, Maple and the elegant Norwegian Firs now grace the grounds in a bucolic, tasteful array that is both restful and eye pleasing.

We passed by and saw the one story expanse of the Presidential museum with its U- shaped forecourt in the distance. We would visit it after the estate tour.

As we approached the Roosevelt ancestral Mansion the guide explained its construction and heritage. The original three-story structure, built in the Dutch Colonial style, was faced with brown flagstones. The windows were framed with green, wooden shutters. During FDR’s lifetime, two symmetrical two-story wings, in the same style, had been added, giving the smaller mansion a much larger appearance. The American flag posted above the entry way held but 48 stars, the number of American states in FDR’s life time. The Presidential flag had a star in each of the flag’s corners, four in total, one for every term that FDR served as President.

The entry hall is small and comfortable. A 17^th century Dutch Grandfather Clock and scores of naval portrait and ship models set the motif for the home. One wall of colonial anti British cartoons is displayed. Despite his Mother’s reproach and order to take them down, the cartoons were humorously displayed when King George VI of Britain came to visit in the late 30’s. He reportedly thought them hilarious.

 Blue delftware urns and vases reminded one of the Dutch heritage of the family. We ogled the comfortable living rooms, with wood burning fireplaces, where many of the early 20^th century leaders had met and talked with the family. British Prime Minister Churchill, a seventh cousin of the Roosevelts, had visited and stayed here many times. The dark mahogany and heavy Victorian-era furniture is typical of the period. Bric a brac of the many generations of the family lined the walls. A striking portrait of FDR’s mother Sara held a place of prominence in the entry foyer.

We walked up the narrow, winding stair case to the second story and viewed the comfortable bedrooms of the family. FDR’s bedroom was unpretentious and comfortable You don’t really get a sense of these historical giants when you see their personal rooms, but rather an image of normality. They were as human as you and I.

FDR memorabilia are displayed  everywhere. He had attended Groton Prep, Harvard undergrad and Columbia Law School, before setting off on a career in Public service that was to span 35 tumultuous years of the American Republic.

One curiosity of the mansion is the outside laundry house. A horse on a treadmill had provided the power to run the washing machines.

After the mansion, we walked into the Horse barn. It is made in that elegant Victorian style of the late 1800’s, like many of the grand 0ld lighthouses along the eastern US coast. The two-story barn was paneled in dark wood and sound mortise and tendon construction. The Roosevelts, like many of the social families in the area, had bred race horses, for meets at Saratoga and other racing venues. The walls of the barn were festooned with multi-colored ribbons comemorating their success. “Natona,” “lady Luck,” “Palomine,” and  “New Deal” were the names of famous winners that were stenciled on the horse stalls, memories of winners past. Various horse tack was hung around the walls, as if the stable men were still ready to breed another champion.

From the horse barn, we walked into the simple estate garden. Surrounded by ten-foot box hedges, a triple row of elegant and colorful flowers set off the stark motif of a six-foot high, ten-foot long, white sarcophagus. The names Franklin Delano and Sara Eleanor Roosevelt, with their dates of birth and demise, were etched on the face of the memorial. It is stark and elegantly simplistic monument amidst the blooming flowers and shaded by tall full-canopied deciduous trees. It is as it was meant to be a restful place of memory for one of America’s greatest Presidents.

When FDR passed on in April of 1945, in his family retreat in Warm Springs Georgia, the funeral train carried him first to Washington for a service and period of lying in state in the capitol rotunda. Then, the trains carried FDR to Hyde Park for his internment on the estate. Many tens of thousands lined the railways along the journey, tears streaming down their faces at this noble patrician who had done so much for the common man.

                            -30

                         (1397 words)

                     Joseph Xavier Martin  

                              8/20/13

Next: The FDR Presidential Museum