Cultural Landscape Report for Bellefield, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS

Holder, Kirsten

A cultural landscape report is the primary document used by the National Park Service to inform long-term management and treatment decisions for its historically significant landscapes. The report follows the approach defined in the Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process and Techniques (National Park Service, 1998). This report for the Bellefield cultural landscape is organized into four chapters: site history, existing conditions, evaluation and analysis, and treatment. The first chapter includes a detailed history of the landowners and evolution of the landscape and built features. The second chapter documents existing conditions of the park landscape in 2012. The third chapter contains an analysis and evaluation of the significance and integrity with respect to the park’s historic period (1793–1945). The final treatment chapter provides guidance for the long-term management of the landscape. The narrative is supplemented with photographs, maps, diagrams, and period plans. Additional detailed information is included in appendices. The cultural landscape report focuses on the 23.4-acre property containing the Bellefield house and surrounding grounds, but also includes documentation of the adjacent 52.3-acre parcel known as the Rogers land, owned by the National Park Service and the 86.4-acre parcel of Scenic Hudson, donated by Gerald Morgan Jr. in 2011. Research for this cultural landscape report has been undertaken at a thorough level of investigation, which includes review of all available historical resources including both primary and secondary sources.[i] Primary source materials included construction documents, plans, maps, photographs, and written documentation from the collections of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library; the Environmental Design Archives at University of California, Berkeley; the New York State GIS Clearinghouse; the Denver Service Center Technical Information Center; Hyde Park Public Library; the Poughkeepsie Journal; The Hyde Park Townsman; and the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. A wealth of secondary source material has been compiled through the work of many researchers over the years relating to the character and history of Bellefield. Sources specific to Bellefield included, but were not limited to, Historic Structure and Grounds Report, Bellefield Mansion and Estate (Snell, 1981); Cultural Landscapes Inventory (Uschold, 1999); Historic Plant Inventory for the Bellefield Property, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (Brown and Claeys, 1995); Cultural Landscape Report for Springwood (Auwaerter and Curry, 2011); FDR and the Land: Historic Resource Study for the Roosevelt Estate (Auwaerter and Sears, 2011); and the park’s updated draft National Register documentation (2012). These existing reports provide landscape context, describe extant features, and document the landscape’s significance. They also provide a framework for a treatment approach and recommendations.

Cultural Landscape Report for Bellefield, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS

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