FDR and the Land, Roosevelt Estate Historic Resource Study, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, National Historic Site, Hyde Park, NY

Auwaerter, John; Sears, John

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second and longest-serving president of the United States, had a profound connection to his family’s Hyde Park estate, today preserved as the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. It was at Hyde Park that FDR was born and raised, gained his love of nature and rural life, raised his family, conducted official business as New York State governor and president, practiced forestry, built his presidential library, and was buried. Throughout his life, FDR cared deeply about stewardship of the land and the rural communities that depended on it. While the Roosevelt mansion known as Springwood is most often recognized as FDR’s home, so too was the surrounding estate that at its height encompassed more than 1,500 acres, with forests, hills, working farms, gardens, and views of the Hudson River. The family estate also contained an adjoining mansion, known as the Red House, that belonged to FDR’s half brother, James Roosevelt Roosevelt, as well as five farms on the uplands to the east. The Roosevelt family kept their Hyde Park houses and surrounding landscape in the manner of traditional Hudson River country estates, with formal gardens, pleasure grounds, and farmland. FDR’s passion, especially later in life, was the working parts of the estate—the farms and woods. In his view, the land had not just natural, aesthetic, and recreational value, but was the foundation of rural society. During FDR’s lifetime, he watched the decline of rural communities as farmers abandoned their once-productive fields. Like many other estate owners and government agencies, FDR believed forestry—one of the primary conservation practices during the early twentieth century—held the answer to this plight. In theory, by reforesting worn-out agricultural lands, farms were returned to productivity, soil and water quality was protected, and the rural economy was revived. FDR demonstrated this conservation theory on his Hyde Park estate by planting over a half million trees between 1912 and 1945, many of them on marginal farmland he purchased surrounding the family estate. His practical experience at Hyde Park foreshadowed much of his public policy in conservation and rural matters as governor and president. This historic resource study provides a history of the Roosevelt Estate that establishes its relationship with FDR, describes its context within the American conservation movement, and details changes in ownership, use, and physical character. As defined by the National Park Service, a historic resource study provides an historical overview of a park and its associated resources, and identifies and evaluates a park’s cultural resources within historic contexts. It synthesizes all available cultural resource information from various disciplines in a narrative designed to serve managers, planners, interpreters, cultural resource specialists, and interested public as a reference for the history of the region and the resources within or associated with a park.

FDR and the Land, Roosevelt Estate Historic Resource Study, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, National Historic Site, Hyde Park, NY

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