We might be familiar with FDR’s New Deal pulling the US out of the Great Depression, but did you
know that before he became president, he was living in a mansion as a part of High Society?
Hi everyone, Ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse"!!
In 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was born into an incredibly wealthy family.
His father, Squire James, was a successful business man and his mother, Sara, was an heir to
her father’s trading empire in China. His parents purchased an old, federal style home in Hyde Park,
New York on one square mile of land and updated it to the Italianate style. There, Sara gave birth
to FDR. He grew up in a mansion, playing with the neighboring Vanderbilt children and riding horses
with the Astors. From a young age, he was inspired by the grand architecture of the palatial homes in
Hyde Park, though, in college, he set aside his love for architecture, choosing to focus on law.
After dropping out of Columbia College, he passed the New York Bar and briefly worked as a lawyer.
Around this time, his father passed away and he married his fifth cousin,
Eleanor Roosevelt and the two moved into Franklin’s Childhood home, known as Springwood.
He quickly set out to update the home to current a more current style,
adding large wings to the house, essentially doubling its size. The brick and stucco
mansion now featured a cohesive façade with ornate balustrade and grand porticos, though,
his original childhood home was left buried inside the new layout behind a fancy façade.
As we explore the palatial estate, we will see a mix of new and old photos to
give us the best idea of what it looked like while FDR called Springwood home.
Passing through the oversized double doors, we arrive in the entrance hall where a grand
staircase with intricately carved newel posts twists around a hidden elevator.
Before we explore upstairs, lets turn the other direction and head through the rounded archway.
This leads us down a hall flanked by arcades, and while stairs had originally been planned to sweep
below the door surround with a broken pediment, FDR was paralyzed from the waist down shortly
after the house was completed and the home was retrofitted to be wheel chair accessible.
This brings us through a pair of double doors and into the Library. FDR collected americana,
including diaries, paintings, and stamps. In fact, one of the main reasons he expanded the
house was to create more rooms for storing his 1.3 million piece vintage stamp collection.
Let’s wind our way over to the dining room where his mother’s collection of fine china was
proudly displayed for guests with most of these pieces already being considered antiques long
before they came into the family’s possession. While we are here, we can take a peek behind
the scenes to view the kitchen, where his live-in staff would have prepared the family’s every meal.
Next, we will peel back curtains to reveal the drawing room decorated with overstuffed furniture.
The chairs, sofas, and curtains are all upholstered in the same floral patterns,
something which was considered highly fashionable at the time.
For all the large rooms, there were also smaller, more comfortable rooms such as the
south parlor decorated with fine art and only a handful of chairs cozied up to an ornate hearth.
When FDR became president in 1933, he had an office added to the mansion to
be somewhat reminiscent of the Oval Office in the White House.
Though this was separate from his study which boasted unpainted,
floor to ceiling built in book cases.
And if we want to imagine where the real conversations happened in regards to the
nation’s trajectory, we can venture into the Smoking Room where we can imagine FDR
sitting down with prime ministers and Kings to comfortably negotiate trade.
Let’s return back to the stair hall and make our way up to the second
floor to begin exploring some of the bedrooms.
First we will see FDR’s childhood bedroom which he reassigned to his own son.
Next we will find the President and First Lady’s bedroom decorated with simple,
but stately furnishings against wallpaper featuring a lattice overflowing with pink roses.
Attached to this room is a small sitting room which could also have been used as a study.
And around the corner, we will find Eleanor’s closet perfectly organized.
There are several more bedrooms on this level,
some for children, and some for guests, each carrying their own distinct themes.
Let’s make our way back into the second floor
stair hall to find what was perhaps FDR’s favorite room from childhood.
The playroom is where FDR would have played with his siblings while his parents were hosting
company and is where his children would have played when he and Eleanor were doing the same.
While the family had many mansions scattered around North America,
Springwood was the only place FDR ever called home. While in office,
he pulled the country out of an economic disaster, created jobs, expanded infrastructure, and just as
he was leading the US to victory in world war II during his fourth term in office, he passed away.
But before his passing, he struck a deal with the Department of the Interior so that Springwood,
along with its collections of art and Americana would be donated for public use so long as his
family would be allowed to continue living there. When Eleanor passed away, she was buried on the
estate grounds alongside her husband who had chosen to rest between his family dogs.
To this day, Springwood continues to rest on roughly 1 square mile
of land with the estate being opened to the public for tours.
If you have ever been, I would love to hear about your experience, and if you had a favorite room,
let me know down below in the comments section. And while you’re there,
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