If you’ve been reading for long, you know we never pass up a chance to see a president’s house (as evidenced here, here, here, here, and here. FDR’s Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia is one of our favorite president houses, so we definitely weren’t going to miss his home in Hyde Park. We’re big fans of FDR because of stuff like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps and also because he had a Scottie, just like our Fergus (disclaimer: Fergus is from a shelter. We don’t know if he’s really all Scottie. But he looks like one anyway):
Our campground at Croton Point Park, north of NYC, was just about an hour south of Hyde Park, where FDR’s home is located, so we spent our third full day there heading north to see the house and also to take Ari to visit nearby Vassar College. We did a ton of college visits on this trip, and I’m hoping to round them all up at some point into one big post (or at least all the northeastern ones into one big post), since touring colleges isn’t really a universally appealing topic.
Unlike a president’s house, amiright?!
There’s a ton to see at the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, and we didn’t get to most of it, thanks to a later start than we meant to get plus the need to get to the Vassar tour in the afternoon. You should definitely allow an entire day for your visit if you can. We had only a couple of hours, which gave us time to watch the movie in the visitor center and then do the ranger led tour of the house itself.
Admission to just the house is $10 for adults (16-61) and free for NPS pass holders. The presidential library and museum is administered by the National Archives and has a separate $10 admission fee (or you can buy a joint admission ticket, good for 2 days, for $20).
We just had time to watch the movie and check out the cool mosaic in the visitor center before our tour started:
The tour takes you on the short walk over to the house (transportation is available for people with mobility issues) with stops on the way to talk about some features of the grounds.
Then we made it to the house:
As I mentioned, we’ve been to FDR’s “Little White House” in Warm Springs, Georgia; it’s one of our favorite presidential sites that we’ve visited. The contrast between it and Hyde Park couldn’t be starker. The Little White House is a small, unpretentious house and FDR’s interests and personality come through in every room. At Hyde Park, we learned, the house wasn’t really FDR’s at all (or Eleanor’s), but his mother’s, and it’s HER domineering personality on display.
If you want to get a better feel for FDR himself, you can visit Top Cottage, the private retreat he built for himself. You can also visit Eleanor’s home, Val-Kill Cottage. You know, if you have more time than we did.
So the main house at Hyde Park is a bit of a grandma house.
With some exceptions, like the very cool sunken study:
And Fala in the window in FDR’s bedroom:
Our tour group was very large, but after giving us some information in the foyer as a group, the ranger turned us loose to explore the house on our own (he limited how many people could go upstairs at one time), so that we had a chance to get a good view of everything and take our time.
The Junior Ranger book Abe was doing included a scavenger hunt inside the house, which was a great way to keep him occupied.
After we finished seeing the house, we made our way back to the visitor center, stopping to see the gravesite of FDR and Eleanor on the way:
From what you have shown of Fergus, he is quite certain he’s a Scottie.
He’s definitely all terrier, anyway. Which is to say he’s a lovable pain in the ass 😉
Fortunately I can enjoy him over the internet and only be annoyed by my own dog. Who speaks up to remind me that Pit Bull Terriers are called that for a reason.