FDR's Mega Mansion: From High Society to Presidency

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Step inside FDR’s palatial childhood mansion in Hyde Park, New York, and discover how the young Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived his life before becoming a legendary president. Join Ken on an epic exploration of Springwood, a place where you can still see the grandeur of the past and get an intimate glimpse into the life of one of America's most pivotal presidents. From grand staircases to secret libraries and even FDR's hidden elevator, we will take you through rooms filled with history, memories, and priceless art.

Location: Hyde Park, New York

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Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress, FDR Library
Assets from: Envato Elements
Music form Epidemic Sound

[mrs.g.]

When my husband and I lived in White Plains, NY, we took a day trip to see this beautiful place. I grew up admiring FDR and Eleanor, and of course, we paid our respects at their gravesite. The interior of their mansion seemed to me a larger version of my maternal grandparents' house - the same, cozy atmosphere with the period furniture.

[krazmokramer]

This beautiful, large mansion is definitely a HOME, not a house! Looks like a wonderful place to live.

[robertbrown]

Beautiful home in the even more beautiful Hudson Valley--and 40 miles from West Point.

[kathleenevans]

We toured the FDR home in 1989. I loved every inch of it from the roof to the ground floor.

[SMtWalkerS]

I live in a small simple home, and I would never want to live in a home that I could not reasonably clean by myself. But I LOVE looking at these large luxurious houses and I think about what it was like to live there. I love the historic mansions and I am so happy when they are preserved! Thank you for sharing these lovely places with us!

[ShyDog]

I think this is my favorite home so far(: I think FDR represents our American aristocracy so elegantly; such a warmly decorated home from one of our beloved presidents, left as important beautiful legacy for all if to enjoy👍🏻

[shade]

Hi Great video. I love Springwood one tiny piece of info ... FDR only had one half brother who was over 20 years older - so chances are he played wit cousins or others in the playroom :-) when I visited, it was clear that Eleanor was an unwelcome guest at Springwood - at least until FDRs mother passed - but even then she did nothing to make it her home. Rather she had a separate cottage built on the estate where she felt at home.

[JodysJourney]

Fun to see. The home was closed to tours when we were there (some renovations, or Covid, or both, don’t remember). Can’t wait to go back.

[shirleybalinski]

This gives the feel of a comfortable English country home, owned by upper middle class( tastful but certainly not pretentious). Seemds a very liveable HOME.

[joecesa]

Great story. I appreciate your trying to stick to the -6 minutes of the episode, and appreciate how you gave a little background about FDR, his family, and his exceptional accomplishments. But he was paralyzed by polio, and wish you expressed that clearly--after our experience of the pandemic, I couldn't help but think of how previous generations (and our medical/research fields) looked at and tried to handle devastating confrontations. I really like and look forward to your work, thanks.

[steelpaine]

My goal is to get to see this beautiful home some day, thank you for sharing.

[pacio]

I had the privilege of growing up in Hyde Park, New York, less than half a mile from the FDR home, and about a mile from the Vanderbilt Home just up the river a little more on the other side of town.

FDR's Mansion was indeed a country manor home which was part of the same extended wealthy family as cousin Theodore, and his cousin and future wife's family had an estate inland a bit farther called Valkill. FDR's estate was known as Springwood. As a child, I spent most of my summers as a feral Gen X kid on my bikes on the extensive trails that connected the FDR Mansion and the Vanderbilt Mansion, down along the train tracks (before MTA put up the fences) and all along the banks of the Hudson near the center of the village of Hyde Park.

While yes, it is a Manor home and there is a good deal of wealth there, the Roosevelts were known far and wide as the Country Bumpkins, at least as compared to their next door neighbors, Cornelius Vanderbilt. Until the age of 16, guided tours inside both homes (run by the Federal Park Service) were free for children, so one of the ways that we could get access to air conditioning on a hot summer's day was to lock up our bikes in the bike rack and take whatever the next tour was, in whichever of the two areas we happened to find ourselves.

Sadly, that skews my perception something mighty fierce. Because if you've ever seen the summer home in Hyde Park of the Vanderbilts, you laugh whenever you hear anyone refer to Springwood (or Valkill) as a 'mansion'. Even the local terminology is starkly different. We in Hyde Park refer to the Roosevelt HOME, and the Vanderbilt MANSION. FDR lived at Springwood full time. And the Vanderbilts used the Hyde Park Mansion as a 'summer cottage' when they weren't out in Newport, Rhode Island. FDR's place has the quaint fieldstone and ugly-assed Dutch architectural style of some anachronistic Jonker or Dutch Patroon from the 1600s, and the Vanderbilt Mansion was a baroque cacophany only imaginable by the "Nouveau Riche" of the Gilded Age of America. Springwood was designed for a large and affluent set of landowners to live like country barons. Vanderbilt Mansion was designed like a palace overlooking the Hudson from high bluffs.

So, sure. It's a 'mansion' by poor and middle classed modern standards. But compared to the neighbors and the standards at the day, Roosevelts might as well have been poor country trash, compared to the Vanderbilts. And the extensive grounds of both homes show exactly how the use of the homes were intended for different things. Roosevelt spent his youth iceboating along the Hudson, and hunting and farming his property, or at least directing the tenant farmers etc. Vanderbilts owned almost a full half of what became the Village of Hyde Park, with the entire north end of the Village along Route 9 being sold and used as housing developments for the village.

If you want to attack anyone for being aristocratic or enjoying the finer things in life while being divorced from the plight of the average Americans, it's important to realize that you are barking at the gates of the wrong family home. And yes, for all four elections, FDR never once carried his home county, Dutchess County, because everyone there identified more with the Vanderbilts, as ridiculous as that might seem, and felt themselves to be embarrassed oligarchs themselves, when even if their families had been in the village when Cornelius and wife "Lulu" (she was fond of being driven through the fields and dallying with the farm hands, and that was her nickname, just as all her dalliances were addressed simply as "John") came to town.

Regardless, both homes are open to the public. Vanderbilts are fun for 'the lifestyles of the rich and famous'. But now on the grounds of Springwood, you have the FD Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the manor house, and the Presidential Gravesite. Far more of interest and historical value than the idolization of the past glories of a family of robber barons and railroad tycoons from the Gilded Age. (Though the formal gardens of the Vanderbilts and the Lawn are still popular centers of town activity and socialization, thanks to the fact that the Vanderbilts divested themselves of the Mansion and grounds once they had to start paying Income Tax on all properties since it had extensive commercial farms attached.)

[bholmes]

I read that Sara rebuilt the home to give more room for her son's family. She controlled the purse strings. "In 1915, Franklin D. Roosevelt, together with his mother Sara, undertook a final major enlargement and remodeling of the home. This was done in order to accommodate his growing family, but also to create an environment for entertaining his political associates. Sara commissioned the design work of the firm, Hoppin and Koen from New York City. The size of the house was more than doubled by adding two large fieldstone wings (designed by Roosevelt), a tower, and a third story with a flat roof. The clapboard exterior of the house was replaced with stucco and most of the porch was replaced with a fieldstone terrace with a balustrade and a small columned portico around the entrance. These changes gave the exterior of the house the look of a mansion in Colonial Revival Style."

[curtisdaniel]

I like the library and the office area best. He is still my personal favorite president. It was sort of a pilgrimage for me to go there.

[mikemintun]

This estate is an absolute must-see. Near Springwood is also the FDR Presidential Library and a few miles away is Val-Kil, Eleanor's home and workshops. The U.S. Park Service Docents for these historic properties are nothing short of amazing. They know their stuff and make the tours truly come alive.

[mikenixon]

I was surprized to see for as weality as the Roosevelts were, their home seemed almost modest oompaired to many wealthy families of that era. Good report.

[jst]

I have had the opportunity to visit a few times. A must see.

[StamperWendy]

The Astors & the Vanderbilts as neighbors & childhood play mates, not too shabby!

[Shelly-mzyf]

The antiques are incredible. Beautiful 😀

[JamesMayToGoPlease]

I love love love anything FDR, so thank you!! Incidentally, his middle name is pronounced *Del* in-oh :)