Upland Farms: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Auwaerter J. 2022. Upland Farms: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976225. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Upland Farms landscape is part of the 836-acre Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (NHS) in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. The park preserves and interprets the family estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd president of the United States who was born at Springwood, the original portion of the estate, and lies buried in its flower garden. Upland Farms consists of the farm properties on the uplands east of Springwood that Franklin D. Roosevelt acquired beginning in 1911. FDR considered Springwood, with its main house known as 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. The Upland Farms CLI project area preserves approximately 153 acres (NPS tract 02-101 and a portion of tract 01-126 that includes the Springwood Home Farm) of the nine farm properties that FDR acquired between 1911 and 1938 for farming, forestry, and recreational purposes. These nine historic properties, which included five farms (Tompkins Farm, Bennett Farm, Dumphy Farm, Hughson Farm, and Rohan Farm) and four smaller parcels (Wright Land, Jones Land, Briggs Wood Lot, and Lent Wood Lot). In total, these properties historically covered 840 acres. The Upland Farms project area does not include Top Cottage (separate CLI, NPS tract 02-102, 40.2 acres), historically part of the Dumphy Farm, Lent Wood Lot, Briggs Wood Lot, and Rohan Farm; or Eleanor Roosevelt NHS (separate NPS park unit and CLI, tracts 101-01, 101-02, 81 acres), historically part of the Bennett Farm and Tompkins Farm, plus a small parcel within the Dumphy Farm. The remainder of the historic Upland Farms properties, or about 566 acres, is in private ownership and much of it was subdivided for suburban residential development in the 1950s and 1960s. The Bennett farmhouse and barns were destroyed by 1974. The farmhouses associated with the Tompkins, Dumphy, Hughson, and Rohan farms remain and are within the authorized park boundary but are not owned by the park and have lost much of their historic landscape setting.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Auwaerter, John
- Date of Issue
- 2022-09-03
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- HOFR , NER
- Keywords
- 1939–1945, Africa, Agricultural Field, and the Atlantic, Automobile, Barn, Bennett Farm, Business, Conservation of Natural Resources, Conservation., Crum Elbow, Dumphy Farm, Farm (Plantation), Forest, Hiking Trail, Historic Site, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Horse/Bridle Trail, Interpretation Facility, Leisure-Passive (Park), Lounge), Manufacturing Facility (Mill) – Other, Parking Area, Political and Military Affairs 1865–1939, Politics And Diplomacy During The War, Politics/Government, Restaurant (Bar, Roosevelt Estate, Shaping the Political Landscape, Single Family House, Small Residential Landscape, Subdivision/Planned Community, The Conservation Movement Matures 1908–1941, The Great Depression and the New Deal, The Home Front, Tompkins Farm, Transforming the Environment, Val-Kill Farms, War in Europe, Wetland, Woodlawns (Bennett farmhouse), Woodlot/Forest (Managed), World War II