Springwood

Franklin Roosevelt's father, James Roosevelt, purchased the Hyde Park estate he called Springwood in 1867, and Franklin was born there on January 30, 1882, the only child of James and his much younger second wife, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Franklin considered Springwood home for his entire life, even while living in Albany, New York City, and Washington, and he returned to it constantly, including to vote in every election he ever stood for. When James Roosevelt died in 1900, Franklin inherited the estate jointly with his mother, who continued to live there and effectively control the household until her own death in 1941 — meaning the president of the United States did not fully own his own childhood home until he was nearly 60.

Roosevelt significantly enlarged the house in 1915, adding wings and a stucco-over-fieldstone exterior that gave Springwood the look it has today. After contracting polio in 1921, Roosevelt did most of his rehabilitation at Warm Springs, Georgia, but he had ramps and other accommodations built at Hyde Park as well, adapting the family home to a body it had never been designed around. Springwood became a familiar backdrop in his political career — reporters and newsreel cameras regularly filmed him there, cultivating an image of patrician country stability even as the nation suffered through the Depression.

In 1939, while still in office, Roosevelt donated his papers and a parcel of the estate to the federal government to build the first presidential library, a model every subsequent president has followed. He is buried, per his wishes, in Springwood's rose garden, where he was laid to rest in 1945; Eleanor Roosevelt joined him there after her death in 1962. The National Park Service opened the house and library to the public in 1946, preserving Springwood largely as the Roosevelts left it.