Hyde Park, New York

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Presidential Library.  We  started our tour with a 30 minute movie about the Roosevelt’s.  We then took a guided tour through FDR’s house. 

Franklin was born in this house.  At the time of his birth, the original house was just the middle and only 2 stories.  After he and Eleanor were married and started a family, he added the third floor and a wing on each side.  The wing to the right was for servants.                                                                                                                                  To the left was a family room downstairs and bedrooms upstairs.  The third floor was used for the children. 

The house was never changed in anyway to accommodate FDR’s paralysis.  There was already a dumb waiter in the house and because his wheelchairs were more like a kitchen chair on wheels, he  was able to use it as an elevator.  He would enter and pull the rope and move himself from floor to floor. He had amazing upper body strength. I really wish we could have taken pictures inside.  This was a house that was lived in.  They had pictures from their travels all over the walls.  We did not have time to go to Val-Kill, which was Eleanor’s home.  She always thought of the big house as her mother in laws home.  Since FDR wanted the house given to the state upon his death, Val-Kill was where Eleanor lived until her death.  They are both buried in the Rose Garden at Hyde Park.

 

 

 

We then took the self guided tour of the Library itself.  FDR built and used this library while he was still President.  He had an office in the library and used it for several of his fireside chats.

He was a much loved president who led the country out of a depression and through most of WWII. He was the only president to serve more than 2 terms.  He died during his 4th term. 

During his first 100 days in office he signed an Emergency Bank Act and created the Civilian Conservation Corp, the WPA (Workers Program) and the Tennessee Valley Water Authority.  These were some of the programs part of his ‘New Deal’.  They helped to bring the country out of the depression.   He also created Social Security believing that everyone needed a pension of sorts when they were no longer able to work or lost their job because of age. 

During WWII, FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" which would supply munitions to the Allies.  Of course all that changed when on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. 

This is the 4th Presidential Library we’ve been to…only 8 more to go!!