Roosevelt, Eleanor, National Historic Site

Val-Kill is a 180-acre property in Hyde Park, New York, that served as Eleanor Roosevelt's principal home from 1936-37 until her death in 1962. The grounds hold fields, woods, wetlands, a pond on the Fall Kill and five major buildings. The two most important are a fieldstone cottage of 1925-26, designed by Henry Toombs of McKim, Mead and White with help from Franklin Roosevelt, and a former furniture factory built in 1926 for Val-Kill Industries. After the enterprise closed in 1936, Eleanor converted the factory into living quarters. Other features include a playhouse, a dollhouse, a stable-garage, swimming pool sites, a tennis court and a stone barbecue. Val-Kill was her refuge and a place to entertain political associates, students and foreign dignitaries, including Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Tito. The property is recognized for its close association with her private life and humanitarian leadership between 1924 and 1962.