Bellefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Auwaerter, John

The Bellefield landscape is within the boundaries of the 836-acre Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (NHS) located in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. Bellefield is the former country place of the Newbold family and was acquired by the National Park Service (NPS) in 1975 to preserve the setting of the adjacent estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), thirty-second president of the United States, and to house administrative support facilities. The park today preserves a large portion of the Roosevelt Estate that covered 1,522 acres at time of FDR’s death in 1945, including Springwood, the original portion of the Roosevelt Estate acquired by FDR’s father that is immediately south of Bellefield, and the farm and woodlot properties that FDR added to the estate between 1911 and 1938, including the 52-acre Rogers Land tract immediately west of Bellefield. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, occupies a 16-acre parcel immediately south of Bellefield within the historic limits of Springwood. The Bellefield landscape consists of a 22.41-acre tract (01-104) that includes Bellefield House, a formal garden, lawns, a service area, a family burial ground, and the park’s main entrance and visitor parking lot. Tract 01-134, one acre under jurisdiction of the National Archives and Records Administration within tract 01-104, contains the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center [hereafter, Wallace Center] completed in 2004. The main approach to Bellefield along the Albany Post Road (US 9) is characterized by hedges and mature trees that screen an expansive lawn that extends west to the main residence, Bellefield House. The historic entrance, now closed to incoming vehicular traffic, is a u-shaped drive framed by stone entry piers along the Post Road. The main entrance to the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library is along the northern boundary of the Bellefield property, and also provides vehicular access to Bellefield House, which contains the park’s administrative headquarters. Bellefield House is a two and one-half story, stucco-clad Colonial Revival-style building remodeled in 1909–1911 according to plans by McKim, Mead, and White around the core of a Federal-period house completed in 1796. To the south of the house is the Newbold Walled Garden, a formal garden designed by landscape architect Beatrix Jones Farrand and completed in 1912. West of Bellefield House and the Wallace Center is the visitor parking lot that occupies the site of a hay field and portions of the domestic flower and vegetable gardens. North of the parking lot is the Bellefield service area, which consists of a cluster of buildings and structures, along with a small burial ground. The service area consists of the Old Barn built in the early 19th century, the Old Garage built in 1905, Stone House (former superintendent’s residence) built in ca. 1905, a water tower and pumphouse built in 1911, and the New Garage built in 1916 according to plans by McKim, Mead and White. The burial plot, known as the Crooke Family Cemetery, is a 50-foot-square stone-wall-enclosed plot established by deed in 1793 that contains four standing gravestones that date between 1811 and 1856, and most likely numerous unmarked graves. The Crooke family owned the property in the 18th century when it was part of an estate known as Crum Elbow. A road leading to the Hudson River, historically known as Stone Cottage Road or the Bellefield River Road, begins in the service area.

Bellefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

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