Roosevelt-Campobello International Park
The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is one of the National Park Service of the United States of America and Parks Canada jointly operated project in Welshpool on Campobello Iceland in New Brunswick (Canada).
introduction
The heart of the extensive area is the country house, built in 1897, which has 34 rooms. There is a permanent exhibition on the building history of the house and the Roosevelt family. The 1,134 hectare park area also houses the Edmund S. Muskie Visitor Center (further exhibitions on Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the history of the park, video theater, souvenirs), the Hubbard Cottage used as a conference center, three other inaccessible country houses ( Wells-Shober Cottage, Prince Cottage and Johnston Cottage), the Mulholland Point Lighthouse and extensive gardens. Eight miles (13 kilometers) of hiking trails provide access to the coast and less-used park areas.
history
The cottage, which today forms the core of the park and attracts several thousand tourists annually, was originally built in 1897 for the Boston family Kuhn. After the owner's death, Sara Ann Delano, Franklin D. Roosevelt's mother , bought the building and two hectares of land in 1909 for only US $ 5,000 . It was only with her death in 1941 that the site passed to her only son, the then president. The Roosevelt family spent the summer months here from 1909 to 1921. In 1915 an extension was added, which stylistically adapted to the existing structure. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt had suffered from poliomyelitis (polio) or another disease that restricted the musculoskeletal system since 1921 , the country house was rarely used by him; when he returned in 1933, the room layout had to be changed due to his state of health, as rooms on the upper floor were now inaccessible were. Between 1921 and his death in 1945, the President stayed on Campobello Island only three times (1933, 1936 and 1939).
His wife Anna Eleanor Roosevelt - niece of President Theodore Roosevelt - shared the house with the children in 1925, and further visits without her husband followed. During her stays in 1935 and 1947, she wrote large parts of the two volumes of her autobiography here. The last visit of the former first lady took place in the summer of 1962 a few months before her death and served to inaugurate the bridge to Lubec.
The park was established on July 7, 1964 and is administered by both nations.
Summer home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The two-story building is 175 feet (35.7 meters) long and 35 feet (10.7 meters) wide after the 1915 renovations. It has 76 windows and 7 fireplaces, which heated the 34 rooms - including 18 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. The main entrance is oriented to the southeast, the partially glazed terrace offers a view to the northwest towards Passamaquoddy Bay and Eastport (Maine) .
The house was built almost entirely from wood as a skeleton structure , the outer walls are covered with cedar shingles, and the same applies to the roof in its original state. All walls of the house are made of plastered wood, wood was also used for windows, doors and thresholds.
At the time it was used as a summer house, the building had neither an electricity nor a telephone connection; the lighting was provided with the help of kerosene lamps and candles. An ingenious system was used to supply running water - a pump, mainly driven by a wind turbine, transported spring water into a water tower, from which storage tanks in the attic of the country house were supplied. The most important source of heat were the 7 fireplaces, which were heated with wood, which was kept in a box below the stairs to the upper floor. The stove in the kitchen was largely powered by coal.
Today's tour enters the house through a former side entrance and initially leads through rooms which, due to the illness of the house owner, served as a reception room and office at the end of his use. Originally there was a school room and a playroom for the children, today photos of the presidential family and objects that were used here (oars, swimming aids, board games, tools for making ships in bottles and the like) are shown in a small museum. The tour continues to James Roosevelt's bedroom, which was later used by the Secret Service , and to the teacher's bedroom, which the President himself used after 1933. You then enter a small study adjoining the living room, from which there is a direct path to the hallway and the stairs to the upper floor. Next to the living room, with large windows facing an open veranda overlooking the bay, is a dining room of a similar size. In the east wing there are utility rooms including the kitchen. Another winding staircase to the upper floor is located near a side entrance, which enabled the connection to the servants' rooms there.
Between the master's bedroom and the servants' quarters is the bedroom of a permanent guest. Louis Howe served Roosevelt as a personal advisor for 22 years and was also a good friend of the family. Next to the owner's bedroom, in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. was born in 1914, there are two other guest rooms; opposite - next to the stairs to the basement - the bedroom of the family's only daughter, Anna Eleanor. A classroom forms the transition to the extension, in which the bedrooms and playrooms of the other sons are located. The covered balcony facing northwest here offers a great view of Eastport.
Furnishing
Of particular interest is the interior of the house, which is partly owned by the Roosevelts. Sensible additions were made from the other cottages on the park area. Furniture made of wicker, as can be seen in the living room and occasionally in other rooms, enjoyed great popularity in summer houses on the east coast around the turn of the century and the first years of the 20th century. The carpets in the dining room were designed and knotted by residents of Campobello Island.
Of particular interest are the technical devices that can be found in the kitchen and pantry. The operation in the dining room was carried out from a separate room between the kitchen and the dining room - the so-called butler pantry . Characteristic for the large kitchen is the huge oven, which contained a heated part to keep food warm or to let bread dough rise. There is also a small stove that runs on kerosene.
Kitchen furniture, baking molds and kitchen utensils are exhibited in the pantry, and special attention is paid to the refrigerator - wooden boxes in which perishable goods were kept on ice. The ice was cut in the winter by residents of Welshpool from Glensevern Lake, a few hundred meters away, and stored on sawdust in a separate ice house.
The laundry in the east across from the servants' entrance gives an impression of the devices used at the time. In addition to a wooden washing machine, there is a cold ironer, a heater and various washboards. The residents' personal laundry was washed here, and table and bed linen were cleaned outside the home. The laundry was dried on wooden racks.
In addition to the domestic staff brought with them from New York - including a tutor, a governess and a nurse - residents of the island also found employment in the Roosevelt household.
Trivia
The then owner of the property - Sara Delano - had the oven in the kitchen replaced in 1933 shortly before her son's first visit in 12 years - the name of the device can be clearly read on the oven door - namely PRESIDENT!
Gardens and reserve
The gardens surround the cottage and visitor center, the selection of plants is aimed at achieving the peak of flowering in the months of July and August, as this is the period when most visitors are in the park. The natural areas of the park surround the summer house and border the Herring Cove Provincial Park on the other side of Provincial Road 774. The landscape is characterized by forests, fields, moors and rocky coast; Another important factor is the tidal flats created by the extreme tidal range in the Bay of Fundy .
Web links
- Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission
- Nationa Park Service: Roosevelt Campobello International Park
Coordinates: 44 ° 52 ′ 33 " N , 66 ° 57 ′ 33" W.