A Walk Through Time

• Eleanor's Walk

A Walk for All Seasons

• While FDR proclaimed the Tulip Tree his favorite tree, he nevertheless made special journeys to Hyde Park in spring when he learned that the dogwood was in bloom.

Burial Site of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

• FDR chose the location of his final resting place. It reflects his intense connection to the place of his birth and formative years, the launching point of his rise to public prominence, his refuge from the serious demands of the world, and the place where he found the resources to face head on the challenges first of polio, then of executive office in a time of dire national crisis.

Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill

• The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill (ERVK) is an official education partner of the National Park Service offering national youth leadership and character development programs, human rights education, and advocacy initiatives that inspire and empower individuals, organizations and communities to build a just and sustainable world.

Escaping the Mob

• Lamenting his lack of private time on his trips from Washington to Hyde Park, FDR began talking about “building a small place to go to escape the mob.”

For Love of the Land

• The reminiscences of Daisy Suckley, cousin and close companion of FDR, remind us of a man who understood, valued, and preserved nature, sharing its restorative benefits with close friends, his Hyde Park community, and the entire nation.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

• Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan for the first presidential library set a precedent that all future chief executives have followed since. FDR viewed the library as a solution to two problems—how to simultaneously preserve and provide public access to the records of his presidency. His was an attitude of “open government,” believing that the people of the United States were entitled to a better look at how their government was working.

Multiple Homes, Multiple Purposes

• Top Cottage was one of several homes used by the Roosevelts, yet it was never intended to serve as a full-time residence. It would be a place where he could experience solitude, or invite select companions.

Old Beaver Dam

• Eleanor's Walk

Picnic Fireplace

• The large fieldstone fireplace was a central feature of many picnics at Val-Kill where the Roosevelts hosted newsmen, movie stars, activists, civic leaders, school children, and heads of state.

Pond Wildlife

• Eleanor's Walk

Tennis Court

• Built in 1950, the tennis court is one of many features offering recreational activity at Val-Kill.

The Climb to Top Cottage

The Cutting Garden at Val-Kill

• The cutting garden provided the Val-Kill cottages with fresh flowers in the spring and summer months. It featured raised beds containing a variety of flowers, surrounded by a tall arborvitae hedge. In the garden many of Mrs. Roosevelt’s favorite flowers grow, including tea roses, as well as peonies, asters, zinnias, marigolds, lantana, and phlox.

The Doll House

• Sara Roosevelt had this small but well-constructed cottage built in 1935 for her grandchildren. In 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt relocated the building to Val-Kill where it remains today at the edge of the pond.

The Legacy of the Land

• FDR had great input in the overall design of Top Cottage, which came from his life-long passion for history. He worked to preserve and interpret the past, making it valuable and relevant to future generations.

The Orchard at Val-Kill

• The orchard was created in 1931 and grew a variety of crops including raspberries, blueberries, pears, grapes, and apples.

The Playhouse

• The Playhouse at Val-Kill was originally constructed in 1928 as a three-car garage and tool shed. In 1936, the building was expanded to relocate the forge for manufacturing Val-Kill Industries pewter wares from the adjacent factory building. By 1941, the building was used and known as the Playhouse.

The Pond

• Val-Kill's water resources have long played an active role in influencing land use and spatial organization of the area. The bridge provides access to the east region of the park from Route 9G. The Roosevelts dammed the Fall-Kill in the 1920s and 1930s, changing the stream north and west of the Val-Kill cottages into a seven-acre pond.

The Pond & Bridge

• Hyde Park Trail: Eleanor's Walk

The Road to Top Cottage

• When you are the President of the United States, there is no vacation from the immeasurable responsibility of the office. But the trail you are about to climb leads to a place that, for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came as close to a retreat as possible.

The Stone Cottage at Val-Kill

• The stone cottage was the first structure built at Val-Kill. Architect Henry Toombs of Georgia designed the cottage, with substantial input from Franklin Roosevelt, who had very definite ideas regarding details of the Dutch vernacular building traditions in the Hudson Valley. Franklin offered to serve as general contractor, but the entire building was financed by Eleanor and her friends Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook.

The Swimming Pool

• The swimming pool provided FDR with one of his few opportunities for rigorous physical exercise. Constructed 1935, it replaced an earlier pool fed naturally by the adjacent pond. The new swimming pool was necessary to meet water filtration requirements established by FDR’s doctors when he became President of the United States.

Time and Transition

• Since the President’s death in 1945, the 1,525-acre family estate has undergone extensive transformation.

Top Cottage

• Franklin D. Roosevelt built Top Cottage for use as a private retreat where, after his presidency, he could write his memoirs and history. But world events intervened. The simplicity of Top Cottage belies its significance as a gathering place for the Roosevelts, world leaders, royalty, and the president's administration who convened in this restful setting to witness a world disintegrating into war and imagine a future with nations united in peace.

Val-Kill

• From a place she called Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote books and newspaper columns, served as the first U.S. delegate to the United Nations, chaired the committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Val-Kill was a center of her development as activist, humanitarian, diplomat, and one of the most consequential leaders of the twentieth century.

Val-Kill Cottage

• This former furniture factory was converted into a rambling, modest cottage for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937, today known as Val-Kill Cottage. Following FDR's death in 1945, this became Eleanor Roosevelt's primary residence, frequently inhabited by grandchildren, friends, and associates.

Val-Kill Cottages

Welcome to Top Cottage

• While never designed to be a residential home, Top Cottage nonetheless received an astounding list of visitors.

Where Eleanor Walked

Women's Rights National Historical Park

• Many people who actively supported women’s rights supported the abolition of slavery. Several participants in the 1848 First Women’s Rights Convection in Seneca Falls, New York had already labored in the antislavery movement. The organizers and their families, the Motts, Wrights, Stantons, M’Clintocks, and Hunts, were active abolitionists to a greater or lesser degree. Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and former slave, attended and addressed the 1848 convention.

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