Sunday, September 1, 2019

124) Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Visited: Saturday, August 31, 2019

This site is among the most impressive I've seen - because Roosevelt willed it to the nation, and the transition to the NPS was essentially immediate, leaving the house _exactly_ as it was, rather than having to re-collect or try to match things.  The view of FDR given is - not bad, I suppose, but even as someone who's no FDR scholar I've heard enough more that it felt quite incomplete, even given just 20 minutes to go through things.  The library is impressive, the garden beautiful, the house well preserved and authentic, and the story - well, other than admitting to the extent of the polio damage, really almost exclusively the story that FDR wanted told.

There was, in FDR's bedroom, a sentence taped over.  I'm - irrationally curious what it said, but the rangers couldn't help.  I'm also curious if his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt - the same one who contributed to the restoration of Saint Paul's Church - ever used, or even was able to use, the TV FDR re-gifted her.  There were experimental stations in Schenectady and of course NYC, but I'm not aware of any in Poughkeepsie.  

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