Val-Kill: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site
Auwaerter J and Nowak L. 2025. Val-Kill: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650024. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, historically named Val-Kill, is a 180.5-acre landscape in Hyde Park, New York that is coterminous with the boundaries of the park. The park is administered as part of the Roosevelt–Vanderbilt National Historic Sites that also include the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Sites. FDR’s retreat, Top Cottage, is east of Val-Kill and to the west across NY 9G are former farm fields and forests of FDR’s upland farms, connected to the Home (Springwood) and FDR Library by Roosevelt Farm Lane. Both Top Cottage and the upland farms are CLI inventory units of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. Val- Kill consists of domestic, agricultural, and unmanaged (forested/wetland) landscapes approximately two miles east of the Hudson River on the uplands of the former 1,522-acre Roosevelt family estate. Val-Kill preserves the country home of Eleanor Roosevelt that originated in the 1920s as an informal retreat for Roosevelt family, housed craft manufacturing known as Val-Kill Industries between 1926 and 1936, was the home of Mrs. Roosevelt’s close friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman through 1947, and became the primary residence of the former First Lady after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. Through the 1950s and 1960s, the Val-Kill property was owned by Mrs. Roosevelt’s sons, Elliott and John Roosevelt, and by John’s wife, Anne. As subdivided from the larger Roosevelt Estate by 1952, Val-Kill included 179 acres on portions of the Bennett and Tompkins farms that FDR purchased for conservation purposes in 1911 and 1925, respectively (the historic core of Val-Kill is within the Bennett Farm). During this time Val-Kil was developed with two cottages, outbuildings, swimming pool, and gardens, surrounded by agricultural fields and forest. The site was a quiet, unassuming place where Mrs. Roosevelt gathered family and friends, underserved youth, dignitaries, politicians, and chance acquaintances, among others. She lived in the former Val-Kill Industries factory building, and John and Anne Roosevelt lived at Stone Cottage. After Mrs. Roosevelt’s death in 1962, John and Anne converted the Val-Kill buildings to apartments and in 1970 sold the 179-acre property to developers who planned a retirement community and nursing home. A grassroots effort at saving Val-Kill led to the formation of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill (ERVK) that advocated for designation of the property as a national historic site. Through the efforts of ERVK and the National Park Service, Congress established Val-Kill as a national historic site in 1977. To perpetuate Mrs. Roosevelt’s humanitarian values, the legislation identified a non-profit partner to provide education and public programming while the National Park Service would preserve the property and conduct tours. Today, ERVK, renamed the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, serves this role and focuses on Mrs. Roosevelt’s legacy of promoting human rights, principled leadership, and social justice. The Center operates from a modern building on the outskirts of Val-Kill, while the historic buildings and grounds at the core of the site are open for tours and contain exhibits.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Auwaerter, John; Nowak, Lisa
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ELRO , NER
- Keywords
- Agricultural Field, Automobile, Bennett Farm, Body of Water (Lake, Civil Rights Movements, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Dam - Concrete (Gravity), Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, Farm (Plantation), Forest, Hiking Trail, Historic Designed Landscape, Historic Furnished Interior, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Interpretation Facility, Interpretive Landscape, Manufacturing Facility (Mill), Parking Area, Picnic Shelter, Playground, Political and Military Affairs After 1945, Politics – Government, Pond), Road Bridge, Scientific Landscape, Secondary Structure (Garage), Shaping the Political Landscape, Single Family House, Small Residential Landscape, Social and Humanitarian Movements, Social History, Swimming Pool, Tennis Court, The United Nations, Tompkins Farm, Training Center, Val-Kill, Wetland, Woodlot/Forest (Managed).