18 Jul 2024 - Vanderbilt Mansion and Last Night in New York

 

Today is our last day here in New York.  It has been an interesting stay to say the least, but every place is unique and that is what memories are made of.  The power outage disrupted the blog entries and access to pictures as my hard drive is plugged into AC power.  I need to get caught up here before we move on, so in addition to what I have already posted on the blog, here is a very brief description and just a few pictures on each stop:

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill):  This was Eleanor Roosevelt's main home from  1945 until 1962 when she passed away.  After her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945 she moved here and took on humanitarian causes and led the United Nations Human Rights Commission.  Her beautiful 20-room house, Val-Kill, was built along the Fall-Kill stream and was a converted factory building. We arrived but were too late for the next tour, so we did a self-guided tour of the buildings and grounds, plus we watched a movie.  A very few pictures:

OK, I had to look it up.  What is up with the use of the term "kill".  There are many towns in New York that have "kill" as part of their name.  So here is the answer:  "As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel". The term is used in areas of Dutch influence in the Delaware and Hudson Valleys and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea." 

 https://danburycountry.com/what-is-a-kill-and-why-does-ny-have-so-many-of-them/

Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site:  This is the location of Franklin D. Roosevelt's home, museum, Presidential library and burial site. He was born here in their family home in 1882 and it became the President's home away from the White House where he entertained foreign dignitaries. He was laid to rest in 1945 in the rose garden here.  Eleanor was laid to rest here next to him in 1962.  The home is magnificent and appears to be frozen in time with all of the furnishings in place.   Here is just a sampling of the pictures I took:

 

The burial site of the Roosevelts and their two dogs

The Rose Garden

The Presidential Library  

Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site:    The Vanderbilt's made their fortune in the railroad industry primarily.  In 1895 they purchased the Hyde Park estate to use as a spring and fall home away from their other residences in New York City.  In 1938 Frederick died and left the estate to a niece who later sold it to the National Park Service for one dollar.  We arrived just in time to join a tour that had started in the grounds.  We then moved to the mansion which includes several floors and is not air conditioned so the higher we went, the warmer it got!  A few pictures:  

The tour we were able to join

The Vanderbilt Estate

Our wonderful tour guide

Very ornate construction

Awesome tapestries

No matter where we go it seems we can never see everything on the list. I called that an excuse to return! Here are a few of the places we had on the radar but we ran out of time:

• Widmark Honey Farm - a great honey farm in Gardiner NY.
• Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome - a living museum in Red Hook, New York. It owns many examples of airworthy aircraft of the pioneer era, World War I and the Golden Age of Aviation between the World Wars, and multiple examples of roadworthy antique automobiles.
• Brotherhood Winery - the oldest winery in the country.  We visited here in 2016 and had an amazing tour and some fantastic wine samples,  but we wanted to go back.
• Samuel F.B. Morse home - With my electronics and communications background, visiting the home of Samuel F.B. Morse, father of the Morse Code,  seems only appropriate!
• Museum At Bethel Woods - the museum at Woodstock.  We've been to Bethel Woods before, in fact we attended a concert there in 2016, but we did not get to visit the museum.  

In closing, we continue to be blessed in that we are able to travel our great Nation and reconnect with our friends, relatives and military comrades, like our buddy George Lechner. 

Tomorrow we pull chocks and head to Round Top Campground in Gettysburg PA.