FDR's Lifelong Hudson Valley Home and Burial Site
4097 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Tickets for the FDR home tour run approximately $20 per adult, with discounts for seniors and free admission for children under 16; the FDR Presidential Library and Museum has a separate ticket.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved walkways with accessible main floor; some upper floors of the home are accessed by stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1915 · Presidential Home · FDR Burial Site · First Presidential Library · Colonial Revival Architecture · National Historic Site
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born at Springwood on January 30, 1882, and considered the Hudson Valley estate his home throughout his life. The property was originally acquired by his father James Roosevelt in 1867. The current main house is the result of a 1915 expansion that FDR commissioned with architect Francis L. V. Hoppin, which transformed the original clapboard farmhouse into the current Colonial Revival residence with stuccoed wings and a center pavilion. FDR oversaw the renovation personally and added the south porch where he often worked during his presidency.
During his presidency, FDR returned to Springwood frequently. He hosted King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the home in 1939, the first visit of a reigning British monarch to the United States. He died at Warm Springs, Georgia, in April 1945, and was buried in the rose garden at Springwood, with Eleanor Roosevelt buried beside him after her death in 1962.
The estate was donated to the federal government and dedicated as the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in 1946. It was the first presidential home transferred to the National Park Service. The adjacent Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the first of the federal presidential library system, opened to the public in 1941 - the only presidential library used by a sitting president.
Sources
Among the lesser-known elements of the Springwood visitor experience is the recurring report, surfacing primarily through New York paranormal aggregator listings rather than National Park Service interpretation, that the dining room and Eleanor Roosevelt's bedroom carry a noticeable chill and a settled quality of sadness for sensitive visitors. The reports are individual rather than collective, and they describe an atmospheric quality more than any specific apparition or sound.
The Roosevelts' Hudson Valley estate was the principal site of family loss and reconciliation across two generations, and the home includes the nursery where the Roosevelt children grew up, FDR's polio recovery rooms, and the bedroom Eleanor used after Franklin's 1945 death. The reported phenomena are consistent with the kind of empathic atmosphere that weighted historic homes can produce; we present them as such, without further claim.
A ranger-led tour of Franklin D. Roosevelt's lifelong home, including the dining room, FDR's bedroom, the upstairs nursery, and the rose garden where FDR and Eleanor are buried. Reservations are recommended through Recreation.gov.
Adjacent to Springwood, the FDR Presidential Library is the first of the federal presidential library system, with extensive exhibits on the New Deal, World War II, and FDR's correspondence. Allow two to three hours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Syracuse, NY
The Erie Canal Museum occupies the 1850 Syracuse Weighlock Building, the last surviving structure of its kind in the United States. The building served as a working weighlock — essentially a giant scale for canal boats determining toll fees — from 1850 until weighing was discontinued in 1883. The museum was founded as a private non-profit in 1962, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Oswego, NY
Fort Ontario stands above Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Oswego River, a star-shaped earthwork first built by the British in 1755 during the French and Indian War. The fort served through the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and both world wars. It now operates as a New York State Historic Site.
Westfield, NY
McClurg Mansion was built in 1818 by James McClurg, the son of a Pittsburgh industrialist, in what was then frontier western New York. Contemporaries called it 'McClurg's Folly' for its ambitious scale — large rooms and high ceilings at odds with the surrounding log cabins. The 14-room Federal-style mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and has housed the Chautauqua County Historical Society since 1951.