Grounds of FDR’s Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (click to enlarge)

SPRINGWOOD ESTATE GROUNDS

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Note that any construction done in the late 1800s attributed to the “Roosevelts” refers to Franklin’s father, James. Franklin was born in 1882 and didn’t start having a say in matters until after his father died in 1900. At that time the estate actually belonged to his mother, Sara, so she had even more say in the management of the estate.

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The grounds near the Roosevelt’s Springwood Mansion include a vegetable garden, flower garden, and numerous outbuildings such as stables and greenhouses. Sidewalks lead to all points of interest. The terrain is relatively flat, so those in wheelchairs will have no problem getting around. All exploration of the grounds is self-guided, and a typical tourist should be able to see everything in 30 minutes to an hour.

The large building located south of the main parking lot is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Opposite the library is where the Roosevelt’s had a vegetable garden that was maintained by Sara and the hired farm hands overseen by William Plog. Vegetables from the Home Garden, as it is called, helped feed the Roosevelt Family and the hired help.

View of the Roosevelt Presidential Library from the Home Garden at Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

When Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and the Presidential Library first opened in the mid-1940s, the Home Garden was paved over to make a parking lot. When the National Park Service acquired the Bellefield Estate in 1975 (the large mansion passed on the way into the park from Albany Post Road), there was an option to relocate the parking lot, but nothing was done until construction on the new Visitor Center began in 2001. The parking lot was removed a year later, but it still took until 2016 for the Home Garden to be reestablished. Today the garden is maintained by volunteers. The vegetables are donated to charity organizations.

There are various ways to make your way around the property. If you take any of the sidewalks that lead to the far end of the Home Garden (away from the library), you will eventually come to a gray building that looks like something right out of a fairy tale. This Carpenter Gothic-style house is the Gardner’s Cottage. It was built in the 1850s by Josiah Wheeler, the owner of the property before James Roosevelt purchased it in 1867. In modern times it was used as housing for park staff.

Gardner’s Cottage at Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Continue down the path to a greenhouse that was designed by the Lord & Burnham Company of Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, and built in 1906. This replaced two wooden greenhouses at the same location.

Greenhouse on the grounds of FDR’s Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

The large wooden building next to the greenhouse that looks like it should be a gardening equipment storage shed is actually an ice house that was built by the Roosevelt’s in 1898. It was used as an ice house until 1941. Today it is indeed used for storage.

Large Ice House on the grounds of FDR’s Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

The greenhouse was used to support the Roosevelt’s Rose Garden, which is adjacent to the building and is now where Franklin and his wife, Eleanor, are buried. A hemlock hedge planted in 1912 by Sara surrounds the garden on the north, east, and south sides, and partially on the west side. A gap was left so that the gardeners could easily get to it with their equipment from the greenhouse.

Gravesite of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in the Rose Garden at the Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Flowers in the Rose Garden of the Roosevelt’s Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

The Queen Anne-style building that you can see from the Rose Garden is the Coach House. This was built by James Roosevelt in 1886. Other than the screened-in porch that was added later, the building is pretty much as it was when built.

View of the Roosevelt’s Coach House from the Rose Garden, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

South-facing side of the Roosevelt’s Coach House at Springwood, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

The smaller building of matching style next to the Coach House is a reconstruction of what was originally a stable built in 1850 by Josiah Wheeler. It was converted into an automobile garage by the Roosevelts in 1910. The building was destroyed by fire in 1971, and it was rebuilt by the National Park Service a few years later. Today it functions as a restroom facility.

Coach House and Garage at FDR’s Springwood Estate, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

The final building that you come to as you walk south is Roosevelt’s home, which is officially called Springwood. However, the Roosevelts called it the Big House or Hyde Park. The only way to get inside is on a Ranger-guided tour. See the Springwood House Tour web page here on National Park Planner for information on the tour as well as the history of the house and plenty of photographs of the interior.

Springwood Mansion at Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

At the southern end of Springwood is a nice view of the surrounding mountains and the Hudson River Valley. The river is actually down below only a half mile away, and it could be seen during Franklin’s time. Today trees block the view, and ironically, most of them were planted by Roosevelt (he had over 200,000 trees planted on his property). Since his death in 1945, the National Park Service in conjunction with Scenic Hudson has managed to buy up nearly 1,000 acres along both sides of the river to keep the land from being developed and the view intact.

View of the Hudson River Valley from FDR’s Springwood Mansion at Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

WALLED GARDEN AT THE BELLEFIELD ESTATE

There is an additional garden at the Bellefield Estate, a property acquired by the National Park Service in 1975. The mansion is within sight distance to the northeast of the Visitor Center—you can’t miss it. It is now used for National Park Service offices and is not open to the public. However, the garden next to it is open.

Bellefield Mansion at Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

While the original house at Bellefield was built in 1795, when Roosevelt was a child growing up at Springwood, the house was owned by State Senator Thomas Newbold, who purchased the property in 1885. The original house was much smaller and was built in the Federal style. What stands today is the result of an expansion in the Colonial Revival style by the Newbolds between 1909 and 1911. Thirteen rooms were added to the existing 16-room house. The expansion included a new wing on either side of the original house (sections on the left and right of the porch in the photo above).

In 1912, Newbold hired his cousin Beatrix Jones (Farrand when married a year later) to design a garden for the house. Farrand went on to become a well-known landscape designer. She designed the graduate college gardens at Princeton; the Memorial Quadrangle, Silliman College Quadrangle, and the Marsh Botanical Garden on the Yale campus; and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C..

The Bellefield Garden is the earliest residential garden Farrand designed that is still in existence. It is known as the Walled Garden, and entrance is through a gate on either side. It is generally open during regular business hours for Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site.

Entrance into the Walled Garden at the Bellefield Mansion, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

After Newbold descendant Gerald Morgan donated the house and property to the National Park Service, the garden was no longer kept up. What exists today is the result of a renovation done in 1993 by local members of the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association. Farrand’s plans for the original garden no longer existed, so the restoration was based on photographs and typical planting styles of Farrand.

View of the south-facing side of the Bellefield Mansion from the Walled Garden, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

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