I’ll be There With Your Family, If You Make Your Way Upstate (#65 Revisited: Hudson Valley – FDR’s Home/Top Cottage)

Here’s what you need to know about FDR's home tour.  The ranger gave up a little overview outside the house, and then a little more in the foyer/entry, and then basically turned us loose to wander around the downstairs for awhile.

This was FDR’s childhood home; he was actually born here (on January 30, 1882) in a home and farm overlooking the Hudson River. He grew up loving both the river and the valley.  He eventually expanded the property from 110-acres to nearly 1500-acres and planted over half a million trees.

His interest in planting and farming eventually became the New Deal and Civilian Conservation Corps.  One of the first New Deal programs was aimed at helping farmers retain their land, moved families into government subsidized rural communities and provided farmers decent housing, cooperative work and farming, and education.







The CCC provided jobs to unemployed men, age 17-28.  They planted over 3 billion (yes, billion) trees and built over 800 parks.  (Remember Eleanor also established Val-Kill to help farmers and families at Val-Kill at this time, as well. In fact, I suspect, FDR developed the federal programs based on her work at a local level. – ‘Cause she’s a BOSS!)

FDR married Eleanor in 1905 and they resided in both the Hyde Park house and a New York townhouse.  Together they had 6 children (one dying in infancy), whom were primarily raised on the Hudson Valley property.

After FDR contracted polio (in 1921) and was paralyzed from the waist down, the multi-level house was modified to his needs with ramps along short steps.  A trunk lift, installed years before to move luggage, became his access to the second floor.



Y'all!  This room is called The Snuggery, and I think every home should definitely have a snuggery!




They rigged up a ramp down the center of the stairs so FDR could still use the library, and meet hold meetings in the library.  The wheelchair was almost never seen.  He would already be in the library and seated in a chair before a visitor was allowed in the library.






After wander the ground floor for a bit, we climbed the stairs to the second level where we were turned loose again. Rangers at both Val-Kill and the Roosevelt home made it abundantly clear that Eleanor and FDR’s mother, Sara, did not like each other. And this is where I lose a lot of respect for Franklin.  He moved his poor wife into his mother’s house and it was miserable for her. It was no wonder she built her own house and tried to avoid “the big house”.  

To make it all worse – the adults (FDR, Sara, and Eleanor) had their own little bedroom wing, I know he was sickly, and I know that Eleanor didn’t live there full time, but still... He may have been a great president, but I don’t think he was a particularly good husband.  That whole situation was a giant bowl of Nope.

Boyhood Bedroom:


FDR was born in this room:


FDR's bedroom:


Eleanor's bedroom:





Sara's bedroom - it was her wish (since she knew FDR would be leaving the house to the National Park Service) that her master bedroom furniture be moved back to the birthing room once after her death.  This room was then turned into a guest room for several years.

Top Cottage:

Oh you thought the tour of the house was informal.  Well, pull up a seat because it was nothing compared to Top Cottage.  While now Top Cottage is owned and managed by the National Park Service, it was privately owned for over 50 years after FDR’s death. In 2000, the property was turned over to NPS.  There is reproduction furniture in the living room and on the porch, but this is one place where you’re encouraged to take a seat and have a casual chat.

FDR built Top Cottage as a refuge from the mob.  The Hyde Park house had been that refuge for a long time, but with kids, a mom, neighbors who got wind of a visit and dropped by, the telephone, etc. he found it more and more difficult to relax and unwind there.

Although, Hyde Park had been renovated to accommodate his wheelchair, he also wanted a place where he could be physically independent.  Top Cottage was designed and built exclusively for someone in a wheelchair.  There are no stairs on the first floor (to the front door, or porch), no thresholds between rooms so the wheelchair could easily move about house, the porch was extra wide, and the low hung windows provided a perfect view for the host or seated guests. Even the bathroom mirror was hung to be used by a seated person.  An earthen ramp was built off the side of the porch.

FDR was planning Top Cottage primarily as a retirement getaway, but it was used liberally between for private visits with close friends and associates between 1939 and his death in 1945. FDR also invited world leaders to Top Cottage to discuss foreign policy issues in the informal, intimate setting.  The first such visitors were the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway in April 1939.  King George II of Greece followed shortly thereafter.

The most famous visit to the cottage happened when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain visited the U.S. to strengthen ties between countries on the cusp of World War II.  The menu included traditional foods like smoked turkey and Virginia ham, but much was made in the press of his decision to serve the royal family hot dogs.  Even though no press was allowed to attend, the hot dog debacle was front and center.   But the informal picnic, followed by a visit to Val-Kill for a swim, and the formal hospitality at the “big house” was typical of a visit to the Roosevelt’s.  

Other notable visitors included, Chiang Kai-shek, Crown Princess Louise of Sweden, Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, and PM Mackenzie King of Canada.  These visits were “unofficial” so no formal record of the Top Cottage conversations exists.

FDR also had a softer style of governing and often welcomed cabinet members, congressmen, ambassadors, military leaders, governors, etc. were frequent guests at Top Cottage.

I Arranged the Menu, the Venue, the Seating (#65 Revisited: Hudson Valley – Culinary Institute of America)

I asked (possibly insisted) that while we were in Hyde Park we should eat at least one meal, and two if we could work it out, at the CIA restaurants.  There are 5 restaurants and between hours of operation and the fact that one restaurant was closed on Saturday for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, I narrowed it down to two.

  

For lunch, we went to The Apple Pie Bakery Café. 



We got there at the perfect time, the restaurant was busy, but we definitely beat the lunch rush.  By the time we left the place was packed and the line was waaay out the door.  And for good reason, my food was delicious.  

Cort will have to tell you what she ordered, but I wavered between the Roast Turkey Club and the Chicken Salad Sandwich.  I settled on the chicken salad, and let me tell you….it was crazy delicious.  It was lemon-y and refreshing, and on a crazy round croissant kind of bun.  



Cort asked if it was better than the Horsefeathers chicken salad sandwich from the day before.  There was no comparing the two.  They seemed like two totally different dishes, both really exceptional.  We also split an order of sweet potato fries, and the fries were really good, but generally tasted like most sweet potato fries, but let me tell you the dipping sauces (maple-Dijon) was out of this world, I want it on everything I eat from now on, delicious.  The sandwich came with homemade chips, which were marginal, but the actual sandwich and fries….so good.

We both also decided to get dessert. Bakery was in the name, after all.  Nothing on the menu really blew me away description-wise, and I think, Cort ended up getting a key lime tartine fancy something.  



I settled on the APBC Apple Cake.  The description is: “caramel, honey, roasted apple oat cake”.  I was expecting a circular, flat oat-cake – kind of like a oaty rice cake.  When they brought it out not only did my jaw drop, but so did the ladies’ at the next table.  I was not expecting something so eye-catchingly awesome!

My only regret (well, there are 2, actually) about eating at Apple Pie Bakery Café are:

1. We didn’t try the Mac and Cheese.  A nearby table got it and it looked soooo good.
2. Despite feeling super full (and the best kind of sick), we didn’t stop in the take-out bakery and get donuts. 

For dinner, I suggested/decided The Tavern at American Bounty.

This was a hard one, because I wanted to try, basically every appetizer they had. 

• Tavern Chips (hand-cut wit beer cheese sauce), yes please!
• Local Raw Cows Milk Rascal Mac and Cheese (add bacon), yes, please!
• House-made Buttermilk Ricotta (farm bread, CIA grown strawberries, pistachios, mixed greens), yes, please!
• Poutine Fries (Gravy, Cheese Curds), you betcha!
• Garlic Fries (Marjorm, Thyme, Smokey Ketchup), um….that’s a yes!
• American Bounty Parker House Rolls (local sweet butter)….please, please!

We settled on sharing the poutine, and it was so good. (So good we just ate it and didn't take any pictures!)

We both ended up ordering the Fried Chicken (Buttermilk Biscuit, Cole Slaw, B&B Pickles, House Salad).  The waiter came back a minute later and told us that they were in the process of making more biscuits, but it would be about a 20-25 minute wait.  Did we want to substitute a different bread?  Wait for the biscuits?  We chose to wait because I was anticipating really excellent biscuits.  





So they also brought us some spicy popcorn to eat while we waited.  It was a tad too spicy for me, but the poutine was really good.  I kind of wish we’d gone with ordering the poutine, mac & cheese, and one plate of chicken and then split everything, but we didn’t communicate about it before they came to take the order. Sigh, someday I’ll go back and I will have mac & cheese at CIA!

The biscuits were worth the wait, though.  I thought it was super good, but I was also glad that I got the sauce on the side – ‘cause that stuff was spicy! 

For dessert we ended up splitting a Tavern Root Beer Float (add Bourbon-Vanilla Ice Cream), and that was also really good.  

The CIA has this policy posted on the website:

Tipping Policy:

A key component of the education process at the CIA is learning how to deliver outstanding service. Students at The Culinary Institute of America are not permitted to accept tips, in accordance with IRS regulations and the CIA Student Code of Conduct. We thank you for honoring the “no tipping” policy, and for giving our students the opportunity to serve you. In light of this policy, and to keep the student experience focused on education, we have included a 20% service charge on each check. All monies from the service charge are returned to our students through scholarships, support of student activities, and the purchase of graduation jackets.

And let me tell you, they take the first sentence seriously.  We had really excellent service at both restaurants and at the Tavern they comped our poutine and our dessert, despite the fact that we chose to wait for the biscuits and were really like “no big deal” about the wait.

We left, again, stuffed full and I, at least, was really happy with our dining choices.

I’m ‘a Compel Him to Include Women in the Sequel (#65 Revisited: Hudson Valley – Val-Kill)

Look, Eleanor Roosevelt was a boss! I kind of knew that going in, but I didn’t realize the extent of her awesomeness until Val-Kill.

Eleanor was born in 1884, her mother died in 1892 and Eleanor and her brothers were sent to live with her grandmother.  One of her brothers died in 1893 and her father died in 1894.  Her childhood was not happy.  But at 15, she was sent to Allenswood School in England – a boarding school that taught her confidence, independence and a social consciousness.  She called her time there the “happiest time in my life.”  She knew that regardless of holding public office that public service would be a part of her life.

In 1905 she married FDR and for the most part they live with his mother in Hyde Park. Over the next decade she has 6 children, a daughter and five sons.  In 1910, FDR is elected state senator and their official public service begins.

During the 1913 – 1920 FDR is serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  And when the US enters World War I in 1917, Eleanor sets up the US Navy Red Cross Canteen.  After the war, she travels extensively to post-war Europe and supports the League of Nations and World Court.  Women are finally given the right to vote in 1920 and she immediately joins the League of Women Voters.

Through the 1920s she joins the Women’s Trade Union League, builds Val-Kill (as a retreat for her and her two close friends and mentors, Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman.  She becomes editor of Women’s Democratic News and concerned about the trend of farmers leaving rural areas for city jobs, starts Val-Kill Industries.  VKI trained and employed local farmers in their off season, teaching them to be master cabinetmakers.  There is also a pewter forge, and a weaving shop that employees women.  



Oh yeah, she also nursed her husband through polio, helped him rejoin public life, and worked to get him elected as NY Governor for 2 terms. She travels all over New York State and reports back on the conditions to FDR suggesting improvements.  She’ll go anywhere and do anything and you better not tell her that a women can’t or shouldn’t do something.

In 1929 the stock market crashes and the US enters the Great Depression.  FDR is elected president in 1932. Eleanor uses her new position as first lady to champion social and economic justice and civil rights.  She’s criticized for mistakes associated with New Deal projects.   She makes it clear, “I’m the agitator; he’s the politician.”

Throughout the 1930s she joins National Urban League and NAACP. She urges her husband to create National Youth Administration and promotes fairness across gender and race lines.  Val-Kill Industries closes in 1936, but she turns the old factory into a retreat for family, friends, journalists, and the occasional world leader can swim and picnic.  She syndicates her “My Day” column on national issues and daily observations.  She resigns her membership in the DAR when they won’t let Marion Anderson (an African American opera singer) perform in Constitution Hall and instead helps her get a concert broadcast at the Lincoln Memorial.

On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor is attacked and the US enters World War II. She addresses the nation saying, “whatever is asked of us I am sure we can accomplish…free and unconquerable people of the United States of America.” Throughout the early 40s she travels to Britain, South Pacific, Caribbean, and South America to visit US troops, and hospitals.  

On April 12, 1945, FDR dies in Warm Springs, GA.  Eleanor tell the press “the story is over.” (Spoiler alert: it’s not; she’s got a lot left to accomplish.)

WWII ends and President Truman names Eleanor as a delegate to the UN General Assembly, where she serves on the committee for Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs.  She Chairs the UN Human Rights Commissions, and drafts (and the UN adopts) a declaration of human rights. This is Eleanor’s proudest achievement.

Through the 1950s and 60s she hosts multiple world leaders at Val-Kill, visits the Middle East and Asia, urges rapid school integration after Brown v Board of Education, is reappointed to the UN delegation, chairs the President’s Commission on Status of Women, and on November 7, 1962 at 78 years old Eleanor dies, and is buried next to her husband at the Hyde Park estate.

Those are the facts. And she accomplished many amazing things in her time here.  But she was also a vastly complex human being who had personal battles, a falling out with her two best friends, hated (or at least very much disliked) her mother in law, and was overshadowed by a powerful husband. 

She used gas station glasses on her table, and her home at Val-Kill is filled with photos of family and friends.  She wasn’t afraid of going anywhere or meeting anyone (or maybe she was, but it didn’t stop her).  She tirelessly supported equality and human rights. She wrote 27 books. She’s one of the OG Bosses.