Day 19 6/12

Today we were visiting three historical houses, Roosevelt House, Vanderbilt, and ValKil. Surprisingly we had a scheduling mix-up we were supposed to be at Vanderbilt at 9:30, but instead we went to the Roosevelt House. Luckily they were able to work around the mix-up. In High School I remember learning about FDR, so I already knew some of the information we were given. I already knew he caught Polio in 1921, that he was governor of NY, and he was the only president to be elected more than 2 terms. I have now developed a tour guide Alice-Raymond, where do you fall. I learned a few things on this tour. One was he had an elevator in his house, he also had ramps that could be removed so guests would not know he is in a wheel chair. His elevator was not electric, he feared it would catch on fire and he would be trapped on the elevator and die (“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” and fire always fear fire). After the tour we visited the horse stable and the rose garden. I noticed that he named one of his Horses New Deal. The Rose Garden is where FDR and his wife Eleanor are buried. Also his dog Fala is buried in the garden with them. The Roosevelt house was amazing, as well as the tour. That is probably because we had an awesome guide Raymond. He was friendly, funny and knew what he was talking about.



Next was the Vanderbilt house. This house was also beautiful. Every time I am in a big house or mansion I just imagine how awesome it would be to play hide and seek or tag in there. The Roosevelt’s never lived in Vanderbilt however it was only a stone throw away from their house. In 1940 the house was given to the federal government, they placed secret service on the third floor to keep on eye on the president and his family.



Like I said previously I remember learning about FDR but I did not know a whole lot about Eleanor. I knew she did a lot as first lady but that was really it. After learning about her from the movie and our last stop, ValKil, it surprises me they didn’t teach more about her. Eleanor Roosevelt was a very important and influential person and defiantly should be mentioned more in school. ValKil was here get away home and it was the only home she ever owned. She loved it there, so it was sad when her son James Auctioned off all her stuff. Thanks to pictures taken after her death they were able to retrieve 50% of her stuff. Her house would constantly have guests, she would even prepare the guest room special to fit your liking. The guide pointed out that the name plate on her desk was misspelled, the name plate was given to her by a young boy who made it for her. She kept it because she didn’t want him to come visit it and it not be there. That one actin shows what an amazing person she was. I could go on about Eleanor but that would make my blog to long. Overall I would say it was a good day, with three awesome sites I really enjoyed today (even after waking up early).