WE SPENT THE NIGHT IN POUGHKEEPSIE in the Hudson Valley with plans to visit FDR’s home in Hyde Park on our way north in the morning. As it turns, out our hotel was just around the corner from Vassar College and we couldn’t resist a stop to see what $84,000 per year buys these days.
Vassar Chapel and Weathervane
Vassar—the perfect college experience
Dorm living, Vassar
Vassar, once one of the “Seven Sisters,” has been co-ed since 1969 when it elected not to merge with Yale. The campus is lovely, a botanic garden-like setting where new buildings blend seamlessly with the old. We saw only a few of the 2500 students, though, we were surprised that none were smiling—we surely would have been! Connie figures that they were up all night studying but I think that the competition to get into a school like Vassar is so stiff that they have forgotten how to enjoy life.
FDR's Big House
The Stables at Hyde Park
Garden at Springwood
Officially “Springwood,” the Roosevelts referred to their home on the Hudson simply as “Hyde Park” or “The Big House.” By any name the house is modest for the neighborhood. The Roosevelts were never as wealthy as their 19th Century industrial baron neighbors but they had enough to be part of the “River Society.” Being President certainly didn’t hurt.
Sunnyvale Living Room
FDR's Taxidermy Colllection
Many people didn't know FDR was disabled
Hotline to the Whitehouse
Our NPS volunteer docent was not a gifted speaker—his 45-minute tour took over an hour. We were impressed with FDR’s taxidermy collection, some of the specimens which he collected and mounted himself. Crippled by polio and deathly afraid of a house fire, FDR had a dumbwaiter-like elevator installed which he could pull by hand using his exceptional upper body strength. And he had the first “hot-line” to the White House—not red, but black.
FDR and Winnie, Heroes of the Twentieth Century
The ride up the Hudson to Vermont seemed endless. We wound around Albany and through downtown Troy just in time to get behind a convoy of school buses. And Vermont for some unknown reason has a 40 mph speed limit on many roads. Our studio apartment at the base of Stratton Mountain’s ski lifts will be fine for a few days. It has a complete but tiny kitchen, a comfortable Murphy bed, gas fireplace and great views of the “not-quite-ready-for-prime-time” fall colors.
