FDR's Love For Hudson Valley 'Lives On' At Presidential Library

HYDE PARK, NY — The mid-Hudson Valley, especially the land close to the Hudson River, is full of history — from the stunning homes like the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, the Wilderstein Historic Site and the Staatsburgh State Historic Site.

But only one, located in Hyde Park, can call itself the birthplace and home of a United States president.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park at Springwood. He called Hyde Park home while serving as a state senator, an assistant secretary of the Navy, governor of New York and president.

His family property, just off Route 9 in Dutchess County, is now the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, which is operated by the National Archives, and home of FDR National Historic Site, which is run by the National Park Service.

Roosevelt loved the Hudson Valley.

“He loved the land here and loved his family’s connection to it,” William Harris, director of the library and museum, told Patch. “That lives on in almost every aspect of this property.”

Harris said there is no doubt a legacy attached to the property, “but there is still a contemporary sense of his presence.”

During his first term as president, Franklin Roosevelt held a news conference in December 1938 and explained the need for a place to keep his own papers after his presidency. In particular, he wanted to build a library to house his vast collection on his family property in Hyde Park.

Roosevelt desired to keep all the papers — which spanned many periods and activities that were not connected to his service in the federal government — in “one definite locality.”

Construction of the library began with the cornerstone laying ceremony Nov. 19, 1939, and was dedicated June 30, 1941.

Roosevelt was heavily involved in getting the library built.

“He picked out the color of the trim in my office,” Harris said. “He designed the building. His imprints are on everything.”

FDR wanted his presidential library — the first one in America — to be in Hyde Park.

“He wanted it to be a part of this community and this land,” Harris said. “It is a part of the local community in a very organic way.”

Among the library and museum’s holdings are Roosevelt’s personal and family papers, his documents covering his state and national public careers, Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers and those of many of their associates.

All told, there are 17 million pages of documents, including 3 million pages of Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers.

There are 22,000 books and pamphlets from FDR’s personal library, 130,000 photographs and 700 reels of motion picture film.

Even FDR’s special 1936 Ford Phaeton convertible car — the controls of which were designed and installed by a Poughkeepsie mechanic — is on display at the presidential library.

And both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are buried on the property.

In November 2003, the library, in cooperation with the National Park Service and the Roosevelt Institute, opened the doors of the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center. It was the first new facility to be added to the estate since the library was built.

The center hosts numerous conferences, lectures and special events and is where visitors from around the world begin exploring the life of FDR.

Harris said the museum does a lot in a tiny footprint, especially considering FDR was president for a little more than 12 years.

“[The library] is one of the smallest exhibit spaces for the longest presidency,” he said.

“It forces us to really look hard at what are the richest things” in the collection and highlight them, Harris said.

The museum has a permanent exhibit that shows the Roosevelt presidency, beginning in the despair of the Great Depression and continuing through the New Deal and World War II.

Interactive exhibits include a touchscreen experience at his Oval Office desk, and visitors can listen to a Fireside Chat in a room made to look like it was from the 1930s.

Then there are the vast amounts of materials open to researchers.

Harris said that often presidential libraries are called pyramids, in a pejorative way, that they are giant things that are worlds unto themselves.

“But they actually reflect the entire culture of their holdings and tell a multitude of stories that too often haven’t been told,” he said.

Harris said the presidential library wants to be of use and service to the local community and the region.

“We are a major tourist attraction, and we are very cognitive of our responsibilities,” he said.

“FDR would have wanted it that way, and we certainly feel that here,” Harris said.