Hooked on the Hudson: New York's fabled river valley overflows with heritage

Travel America, March-April, 2004 by Roberta Sotonoff

EVERY SPRING AND FALL THE EAST EDGE OF THE Hudson River was a social hotspot. Life was planning a party, throwing a party, and going to someone else's party.

The party animal days are over, but many of the stately homes remain. Charming inns, one-of-a-kind shops, fine arts, wineries, and great food venues also dot the undulating landscape of New York's Hudson Valley. It reeks of history, and the river runs through it.

Franklin Roosevelt, mesmerized by the area, was quoted as saying, "All that is within me cries to come back to my home on the Hudson River."

His estate in Hyde Park is probably the best known residence in the valley. FDR returned there 139 times while 32nd President of the United States.

FDR's presidential library, the only one used by a president while in office, contains his original study and White House desk, plus his hand-controlled Ford, Phi Beta Kappa key, and even the collars of his beloved dog, Fala. There is a gallery dedicated to Eleanor as well.

In the dim entrance hall of his home, Springwood, a FDR bust is silhouetted against the window. Walk into the parlor and see it as visiting heads of state did. You can almost feel FDR's presence. His pulley elevator is still intact. His wheelchairs were kitchen chairs with wheels and an attached ashtray. Roosevelt, paralyzed by polio at age 39, felt he people would not accept a handicapped person as president. He was determined to mask his disability. With the help of his son and his valet, he stood. With the aid of heavy braces, he swung his hips and painfully walked when in public.

Eleanor never felt at home at Springwood because it was her mother-in-law's house. In 1928 she built Val-Kill as a furniture and pewter factory to help local men learn a trade. After FDR's death in 1945, it became her permanent home.

In Val-Kill's cozy, wood-paneled living room. Mrs. Roosevelt entertained world leaders. Guests would receive thoughtful gifts like fresh flowers, fruit, or a book. She usually invited more people for dinner than there was food, making it almost impossible to keep a cook.

"Her last cook, Marge, lasted six years. Marge cooked for 20 people every night whether they were coming or not," says guide Doris Mack.

Top Cottage, FDR's daytime retreat, sits on a hilltop. Except for some photos and two rocking chairs on the porch, it is bare but brims with history.

"You enjoy it the same way FDR did." says Park Ranger Diane Lobb-Boyce.

Mostly you sit on the porch, look out on the Catskill and Shawangunk mountains, and talk about FDR. When debating the feasibility of the atomic bomb, Roosevelt and Churchill also sat in rocking chairs and enjoyed the same view.

Less is more at Top Cottage, but the 19th and 20th century mansions that hug the Hudson shore overflow with opulence.

The Vanderbilt Mansion, just down the road from FDR's home, once required a staff of 60 to maintain the house and gardens. Almost all of the furnishings in its 54 rooms and 14 baths came from Europe or Asia. The entrance hall features a huge fireplace with two pregnant women holding its mantel and an encircling second-story balcony topped with a giant skylight. Downstairs, a hub of activity, servants prepared meals and assembled the 100 live floral arrangements that always adorned the house.

Lyndhurst, home to capitalist Jay Gould, was even more garish then the Vanderbilt Mansion. Its Gothic Revival architecture, abundant stained glass windows, and chapel-like artist gallery make it look more like a church than a residence.

Kykuit, the Rockefeller mansion, is the most sumptuous of the party palaces. The six-story, hilltop house is surrounded by terraced gardens and a nine-hole golf course.

Kykuit's interior, the coach collection in the barn, and the gardens and outdoor sculptures will make your head spin. Asian influence pervades the house, except for Nelson Rockefeller's original modern art collection, which includes samplings of Picasso, Muro, Warhol, Calder, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Smaller homes, but with awesome landscaping, were inhabited by "Headless Horseman" author Washington Irving and Morse code inventor Samuel Morse.

At Irving's Sunnyside, guides clad in mid-Victorian dress lead you not only through the house but on a journey through his life. The natural landscape around the wisteria-draped, gabled house gives it an air of peacefulness, and the Spanish-styled tower reflects Irving's admiration of European architecture.

Samuel Morse's Locust Grove is furnished as it was in 1906 when the Young family owned it. Situated on a bluff, the house is surrounded by imposing trees, gardens, and attractive vistas.

At the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, Calder, Henry Moore, and Isamu Noguchi sculptures are positioned around the center's 500 rolling acres. The dramatic silver roofline of Bard College's Fisher Arts Center in Annandale-on-the-Hudson is a creation of world-famous architect Frank Gehry, designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Chagall windows, a gift from the Rockefellers, grace the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, near Kykuit. Much more traditional but equally impressive are the stained glass windows at the Protestant Chapel at West Point Military Academy. They enclose a 210-foot-long aisle and the world's largest organ. The burning candle by the empty pew is a tribute to MIAs.