Springwood: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Auwaerter J. 2022. Springwood: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650031. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Springwood landscape is the core of the 836-acre Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (NHS), located in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. The site preserves and interprets the family estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), thirty-second president of the United States who was born at Springwood and lies buried in its flower garden. FDR considered Springwood, with its main house known as Springwood or the Home, as his primary residence from his childhood through his tenure as New York State governor and four terms as President of the United States, when he led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. The park today preserves a large portion of the Roosevelt Estate, which covered 1,522 acres at time of FDR’s death in 1945. Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site preserves another 181 acres within the limits of the Roosevelt Estate. Springwood is the name that FDR’s father, James Roosevelt, gave to his family’s country estate at Hyde Park that he acquired between 1867 and 1886. The estate included domestic buildings and pleasure grounds on the west side of the Post Road (US 9) and the farm buildings on the east side of the road, called the Home Farm. This original portion of the Roosevelt Estate included two residential complexes: the Home to the north, and the Red House to the south (see J.R. Roosevelt Place CLI). In 1900, James Roosevelt died and left his estate to his sons FDR and J.R. Roosevelt, with FDR’s portion that included the Home and Home Farm subject to the life estate of his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Following his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905, FDR began to actively manage the estate and practice conservation, including model farming and forestry, and purchased his first of several farms on the uplands to the east in 1911. He organized the estate by the parcels that he or his parents purchased. At Springwood outside of the J.R. Roosevelt Place, these included the Wheeler Place and Rogers Land west of the Post Road, and to the east, the Bracken Place and Boreel Place (east half) that comprised the Home Farm. FDR also named areas within these parcels, such as lots and fields. In 1939, FDR established his presidential library and archives at Springwood close to the Home (today managed by the National Archives and Records Administration), and enacted legislation that enabled a 33.2-acre portion of the property surrounding the Home to be conveyed to the federal government for establishment as a national historic site. The National Park Service opened the site to the public in 1946, one year after FDR’s death. The Home Farm, acquired by the park in several tracts between 2007 and 2011, historically consisted of open fields, pastures, and the Springwood farm building complex on the west half bordering the Post Road. The interior or eastern part, which is contiguous with the Dumphy and Bennett farms (see Upland Farms CLI), is wooded with four remaining forest plantations set out as part of FDR’s forestry program. The Home Farm is crossed by two main roads: Farm Road, which extended along the southern part of the Home Farm through the farm building complex to the Bennett Farm and Val-Kill, and Newbold Road, built by the owner of Bellefield in 1905 to access his tenant farms (Dumphy and Hughson farms). These roads are connected by Cross Road, and several secondary woods roads extend off them. The park presently maintains the western part of Newbold Road, Cross Road, and the eastern part of Farm Road as Roosevelt Farm Lane, a multi-use trail that provides visitor access between Springwood, Top Cottage (FDR’s retreat), and Val-Kill (Eleanor’s home).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Auwaerter, John
- Date of Issue
- 2022-08-20
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- HOFR , NER
- Keywords
- 1939–1945, Africa, Agricultural Field, and the Atlantic, Architecture, Automobile, Brierstone, Colonial Revival, Conservation of Natural Resources, Conservation., Crum Elbow, Dam - Concrete (Gravity), Dam – Earthen, Estate Landscape, Expressing Cultural Values, Family Duplex, Farm (Plantation), Forest, Gothic Revival, Grave/Burial, Hiking Trail, Historic Designed Landscape, Historic Site, Horse/Bridle Trail, Horticulture Facility, Interpretation Facility, Leisure-Passive (Park), Parking Area, Political and Military Affairs 1865–1939, Politics And Diplomacy During The War, Politics/Government, Queen Anne, Roosevelt Estate, Secondary Structure (Garage), Shaping the Political Landscape, Single Family House, Subdivision/Planned Community, Tennis Court, The Conservation Movement Matures 1908–1941, The Great Depression and the New Deal, The Home Front, Theater (Cinema), Transforming the Environment, View, War in Europe, Woodlot/Forest (Managed), World War II