The train ride up the Hudson is beautiful – no wonder it inspired a school of artists. As with the LIRR, I realized how seldom I’ve taken the Metro-North train. I couldn’t do all four National Park sites there in a day – plus there are hiking trails in the Hyde Park area – so I’d love to go back (maybe sometime in the fall…maybe this fall?). Not to mention so much else that there is to do in the Hudson Valley!
I started with a tour of the house – past the rose-garden graves of Franklin and Eleanor and a sculpture made of pieces of the Berlin Wall. Franklin was born there and his mother lived in the house along with them much of the time; Eleanor never really liked it there. There were interesting accommodations made for his wheelchair, extremely discreet so he could hide his disability from visitors. The rooms and décor were both simple and elegant, with some of young Franklin’s collections on display.
FDR began the tradition of the presidential library, developing and using his during his lifetime. I breezed through the museum/library (it warrants more time if/when I go back) before departing for the next site - Eleanor Roosevelt’s house, Val-Kill. This is where she stayed from FDR’s death until her own, serving as Ambassador to the UN, fighting for civil rights, and writing a daily newspaper column (as the tour guide put it, she was the blogger of her time). Val-Kill is a cozy little cottage with mismatched furniture and some of Eleanor’s precious things – her own space.
I walked the former private road, now a trail, back from her house to the visitor center – good to get a little walk in, even though it meant not having time to return to the museum. I ended the day at Top Cottage, FDR’s getaway from the main house, which itself was a getaway from the White House – it’s unfurnished so there’s not much to see except the view; we sat on the porch and the ranger talked about FDR. The Park Service is doing some brush clearing around the cottage – as an experiment, they’re using goats rather than people or equipment; it’s going well!
The site I didn’t get to at all was the Vanderbilt Mansion – I had heard good things about it, but I decided to focus on the Roosevelts for the day. The day went quickly, even counting the four hours on the train!
Since I was on a roll, the next day I took the subway to Grant’s Tomb! Who’s buried there? Grant and his wife! I haven’t spent much time in the Columbia University area - it was interesting to walk some of the campus. The monument is huge, with a small exhibit. In fact, it’s the largest mausoleum in North America, and was funded by the largest public fundraising effort up to that time. Quite the contrast to the small graves of the Roosevelts. Grant’s Tomb is something else I’d talked about doing for years, now done!
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