Val-Kill Cottage
Like Val-Kill itself, Eleanor Roosevelt's description of the her home is modest. Yet the humble Dutch Colonial was priceless to the First Lady. The small fieldstone cottage was a comfortable and private place to come home to -- a refuge from a very public life.
Sitting in the shadows of the Roosevelts' Hyde Park mansion in New York, Val-Kill was the only home that ever belonged to Mrs. Roosevelt. The only National Historic Site dedicated to a First Lady, the home welcomes visitors as the First Lady would have in the 1930s.
Despite a steady procession of family and guests, Val-Kill remained Eleanor Roosevelt's sanctuary. It was the one place where she could relax or work uninterrupted late into the night. Shown here is the living room.
Having spent most of her girlhood in her grandmother's mansion at Tivoli, New York, Eleanor married at age 20 and discovered that along with her husband came his doting mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The grande dame of Hyde Park accompanied the young couple almost everywhere they went during their first years of marriage -- a New York City townhouse she built and decorated for them; the family vacation house at Campobello, New Brunswick; and the venerable Roosevelt manor house on the banks of the Hudson River.
Sara expected to have the last word in household matters, and the young wife, wanting to please her husband's family, usually allowed her mother-in-law to rule.
Franklin's election to the New York State Senate in 1910 and his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913 took them to new places. Sara spent little time with her son in Albany and Washington since she disapproved of his public career. Eleanor now found her house full of Franklin's political cronies.
Eventually, through her work in the Democratic party, Eleanor began to acquire political associates of her own. New York Democratic Committee coworkers Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman became her closest friends.
A quiet place to reflect...Eleanor's study at Val-Kill
The idea for Val-Kill emerged in August 1924. Eleanor invited Nan and Marion to join her family at their favorite picnic spot by a stream, Fall Kill, on the Roosevelt estate. Listening to his wife's lament that Sara was closing the big house for the year, making this the last outing of the season, Franklin suggested that the three friends build a cottage nearby where they could enjoy the place year-round.
The women enthusiastically accepted his offer of several acres of land for their lifetime use. Franklin himself helped architect Henry Toombs design the structure in Dutch Colonial style. By 1925 a small fieldstone house stood on the site, christened Val-Kill after the nearby stream.
Nan and Marion moved into the cottage immediately, making it their permanent residence until 1947. Eleanor joined them on weekends and holidays and during the summer.
In the comfortable wood-paneled living, Eleanor at last had a place free from her mother-in-law domination -- a home to entertain friends, or to be alone if she chose.
| "My house seems nicer than ever and I could be happy in it alone!" Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to her daughter Anna. "That's the last test of one's surroundings." |
In 1926 the women constructed a second, larger building on the site to house Val-Kill Industries, an experimental business they started with mutual friend Caroline O'Day. The four women were saddened by the exodus of rural New Yorkers to the large cities in search of jobs. The industry's founders believed that if these farm workers learned manufacturing skills in addition to agriculture, they would have a source of income when farming was unprofitable. For 10 years local men and women turned out replicas of Early American furniture, pewter pieces, and weavings. Although Val-Kill's products were of high quality, the operation folded in 1936, a victim of the Great Depression.
Instead of closing down the factory building, Eleanor, by now First Lady, converted it into two apartments for herself and her secretary Malvina "Tommy" Thompson, with several guest rooms to handle the overflow from the big house.
During the hectic Roosevelt presidential years, Hyde Park was a welcome refuge for Franklin from unceasing activity in Washington, as well as a quiet place for Eleanor to rest after her whirlwind trips around the country.
When Franklin could not accompany her to Hyde Park, Eleanor spent her visits at Val-Kill rather than in the imposing mansion.
Foreign heads of state who visited the president usually spent time at Hyde Park. After visiting the Roosevelt home, dignitaries such as Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands dined beside the outdoor fireplace at Val-Kill.
Eleanor continued this tradition of informal gatherings outside her cottage long after Franklin died. As specified by his will, she turned the big house over to the U.S. Government but kept the Val-Kill complex for herself, living in the converted furniture factory, which she renamed Val-Kill Cottage, for 17 more years.
In this placid setting she received some of the most important world leaders of the time. Nikita Khrushchev, Marshal Tito, Haile Selassie, and Jawaharlal Nehru all came to Hyde Park to see Franklin Roosevelt's grave and pay their respects to his widow. To Eleanor, these visits were opportunities for her to discuss humanitarian issues candidly with influential men. She was also hostess to Adlai Stevenson, a frequent visitor, labor leader Walter Reuther, and John F. Kennedy, who sought her blessings for his 1960 presidential campaign.
There were other guests who were less famous but no less welcome. Each summer she entertained more than 150 youngsters from the local Wiltwyck School for delinquent boys. She put on an all-American picnic. The children ate hot dogs and played games, and afterwards Eleanor read to them from Kipling. Eleanor's family and personal friends often stayed at Val-Kill; she delighted in planning large holiday celebrations for loved ones.
After Eleanor died in 1962, her house was made over into four rental units. In 1970 the property was sold to private developers who planned to build on the land. Worried that the development would damage a valuable historic asset, concerned citizens organized a drive to preserve the site, which in turn sparked interest in establishing a national memorial. In May 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed the bill creating the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, "in order to commemorate for the education, inspiration, and benefit of present and future generations the life and work of an outstanding woman in American history."
Photos and text from the National Park Service
