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| Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt |
Today we started early packing the van at 8:15. I tried to get Toby to compromise and have our day start at 8:20 but he refused and gave me props for trying. We left Mount Saint Mary's and arrived to the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This house originally belong to his mother Sarah. His mother gave birth to Franklin in this house and died in the same room later in life. During his life time FDR contracted polio which is a serious disease that often left people paralyzed. After this disease Roosevelt never walked again. One thing that surprised me was during this time period, many people associated a physical impairment with mental impairments. This caused Roosevelt to try to hide that he couldn't walk. When he would have guests he would have himself set up in a chair in his library with his legs crossed to make it look like he could move his legs. Eleanor did not like staying in her room and in the house because it reminded her of her mother in-law Sarah. She then later built Val-Kill as her get away. One room I really liked in the house was the pink room because it was decorated in pink. Two important guests who stayed in this room were Winston Churchill and King George VI of Great Britain. The servants wing in this house included 8 bedrooms, a trunk room, a sewing room and two bathrooms. The amount of servants in the house would change based on how many people were staying in the home. Outside of the house Sarah had a garden in which Fredrick Roosevelt was buried in later. He died of a cerebral vascular accident and his wife Elanor was buried in front of Franklin D. Roosevelt when she died much later. I really enjoyed looking at the garden because ut was beautiful and contained the same types of flowers as it did when the Roosevelt family was
alive.
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| Sarah's Garden |
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| Vanderbilt Mansion |
The picture above is of the Vanderbilt Mansion that was built by Fredrick and Louise built Vanderbilt. They did not have any children so this big house with 54 rooms was used for themselves. They used this as a spring and fall home. It was a 700 acre estate and most of the property was used for farming. When the Vanderbilt family died they did not have any children so they left the mansion and farm to their niece. She did not have any interest in owning the farm so she tried to sell the place. She was trying to sell the house during the great depression so she did not have any luck. She was originally asking 350 thousand for the home and farm. A year later she lowered the price to 250 thousand and she still did not have any luck. Down the road Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to donate his home to the national park and convinced the niece to do the same. This house was a lot different than the Roosevelt home. It was a lot bigger in size and had more rooms. It also was a lot more elegant inside. There was fancy tile and a fuzzy hand rail for the stair case. I really liked this because for once the tour guide encouraged us to touch something. This was unusual because most objects are not allowed to be touched because of the oils on our skin.
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| Dinning Room Inside Val-Kill |
The last place we went to today was Val-Kill, where Eleanor Roosevelt spent a lot of time. When arriving I can see why she really liked this place. It was so peaceful outside, there were beautiful plants and some animals including cute chipmunks. It was cool to learn that the house we toured through was once a factory that was later converted into a house when the factory went out of business. Another important fact to bring up is after Eleanor's death all the artifacts were auctioned off. The historical site has been working to get these artifacts back. When we first walked into the house there was an apartment for her servant. Eleanor kept her desk inside of this apartment. As we continued through the house we went into my favorite room the dinning room. The first cook Roosevelt had did not last very long because of communication issues. She would tell the cook to cook a small meal because she was only having a few guests over but then invite a lot more people then what she told the cook. The next cook she hired always prepared a meal for 20 people each night no matter what. She would also scatter her guests throughout the table and have her grand children sit with the guests. This was to get her grand children to hear different views on politics and create their own view. After this tour we headed back to Troy. In the words of Katie " I don't think I have ever been this happy to go back to Troy."
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