History, Natural History & the Arts
Substantial infrastructure upgrades have been made at Mills-Norrie State Park in Dutchess County, NY.
This $3 million project includes a new septic system and dumping station for recreational vehicles to help protect both campers and the environment. [Read more…] about Mills Norrie State Park Campground Upgrades
It was July 1942, the seventh month of the United States in World War II (1941–1945). The German military had driven into the Caucasus region of southeastern Europe. New York residents were shocked, too, by news that fascists from a German U-boat had landed several weeks earlier in eastern Long Island but the Nazi agents were captured.
Then the media reported that on July 16, six parachutists had been spotted in the skies near Hyde Park, NY, home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The government worried that enemy spies or assassins might be near Roosevelt’s Hudson Valley residence. [Read more…] about Beware the Enemy: World War II Upstate New York Manhunts
What follows is an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald of New South Wales, Australia on January 23, 1852. Chartered in 1846, the Hudson River Railroad was built to connect the Troy and Greenbush Railroad with the city of New York.
On Wednesday, [October 3, 1851] the ceremony took place of opening the Hudson River Railroad, in its entire length from New York to Albany. Hitherto the portion of the road between Poughkeepsie and Tivoli [in Dutchess County] (twenty-six miles) was not in operation, and the passengers were conveyed in a steamboat between those two points. Last week the road was completed, and the cars ran over it privately. Last week it was [also] publicly opened, by running two excursion trains each way and returning. [Read more…] about 1851: The Opening of the Hudson River Railroad
After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt lost the use of his legs, his son Eliott wrote that his father had a fear of fire. He regularly practiced escaping from their family home, Springwood, in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY, in the event that there would be a fire.
During these drills, Roosevelt would crawl on the floor, pulling himself, pretending there was a fire to escape. [Read more…] about The Day FDR’s Hyde Park Mansion Caught Fire
Moses Smith was a lifelong Democrat who lived in Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, New York, which at the time was a Republican bastion.
Smith was a tenant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, living on a farm owned by FDR called Woodlawns. According to Smith’s son Clifford, the home got its name because of all the trees on its spacious lawns. [Read more…] about Moses Smith and FDR: A Friendship
Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) are an endangered, anadromous fish species that spend most of the year in the Atlantic Ocean, but the adults move up the Hudson River during this time of year to spawn. While in the ocean they migrate from Florida to Maine.
They are the Hudson River‘s biggest fish, and New York State’s largest sturgeon species (New York has three species — the Atlantic sturgeon, shortnose sturgeon, and lake sturgeon). [Read more…] about Massive 6-Foot Atlantic Sturgeon Caught in Hudson River
“All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt once declared. It was at his home in Hyde Park, NY, that FDR could indulge in his favorite avocation— “tree farmer.” A new children’s book Franklin’s Trees (Muddy Boots, 2024) by A.J. Schenkman with illustrations by Lauren Reese introduces FDR’s love of nature through a lifetime in which he oversaw the planting of over a million trees on his estate. [Read more…] about New Children’s Book ‘Franklin’s Trees’ Tells of FDR’s Love of Nature
The lifelong home of America’s 32nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY, was purchased by Roosevelt’s father James Roosevelt I in 1867 and named “Springwood.” [Read more…] about Heritage Spotlight: Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Dutchess County
The 128th New York Infantry Regiment was a volunteer regiment from Columbia and Dutchess Counties during the American Civil War. Formed in Hudson, New York, on September 5, 1862, by Colonel David S. Cowles, the regiment fought at the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana and was part of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
Over the course of the war, many of the regiment died or were taken prisoner and sent to the infamous Confederate Libby Prison. Colonel Cowles died with many of his men in battle at Port Hudson, while attempting to reopen the Mississippi River to the Union . [Read more…] about The 128th NY Regiment & Columbia County Contributions to the Union Army
Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Awards for Excellence program seeks to recognize and commend exceptional efforts among the Network’s members. Awards are made to projects that exemplify creativity and professional vision resulting in a contribution to the preservation and interpretation of the historic scene, material culture, and diversity of the region. [Read more…] about Greater Hudson Heritage Network 2023 Excellence Awards Announced
Railroads have been operating along the east shore of the Hudson River for virtually its entire length between New York and Albany since 1851 and along the west shore of the river from Haverstraw [in Rockland County, NY] to a point below West Park [in the Town of Esopus, Ulster County] since 1883, Hudson River boatmen have had plenty of opportunity to observe the changes that have taken place over the years in railroading. [Read more…] about Hudson River Tugboat Views: The West Shore Railroad, Track Walkers & Hoboes
In 1926, Eleanor Roosevelt convened with three of her closest friends, Caroline O’Day, Marion Dickerman, and Nancy Cook, to discuss the probability of a bold new venture. The four women, all active in New York’s Democratic Party, agreed to open a workshop that specialized in the production of Colonial Revival furniture.
Their business would be conducted on the Roosevelts’ Val-Kill property in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY and appropriately named “Val-Kill Industries.” Two years prior, Franklin D. Roosevelt built a quaint Dutch Colonial cottage on the property for Eleanor, Marion, and Nancy. This came to be called the “Stone Cottage,” and a more industrial building was constructed for the workshop. [Read more…] about Val-Kill Industries & The American Arts and Crafts Movement
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and is located near FDR’s home in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY.
The first presidential library — and the only one used by its namesake while in office — was planned and designed by Roosevelt in the Dutch Colonial style and houses his official papers, books, and other memorabilia, as well as the papers of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Heritage Spotlight: FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Dutchess County
On the west side of the Hudson River near Newburgh, NY, across the river from the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park, was the Delano estate known as Algonac.
The Delano family hailed from Massachusetts and traced their origins to the Pilgrims and the Mayflower (they once spelled their name Del de Lannoy). The family was tied to the sea and eventually settled in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. [Read more…] about Algonac: The Delano’s Hudson River Estate
“Saturday was a sad day for all of us and I know that all of Fala’s friends will also be sad to know that he slept away, and the little dog’s story had come to an end.”
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote these words in her column “My Day” on April 8th, 1952. She was saddened by the loss of the famous Scottish Terrier that belonged to her late husband FDR. Both Fala and his grandson Tamas McFala, also a Scottish Terrier, were constant fixtures at Val-Kill in Hyde Park, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt after President Roosevelt died. [Read more…] about Fala, A Presidential Dog
The 16th annual Roosevelt Reading Festival has been set for June 15th at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, 4079 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, from 10 am to 5 pm. [Read more…] about Roosevelt Reading Festival at FDR Library Saturday
The National Park Service will commemorate President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 136th birthday on Tuesday, January 30th at 3 pm.
The event is held in the Rose Garden at the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York.
Brigadier General Cindy R. Jebb, Dean of the Academic Board, United States Military Academy, West Point will present the remarks. The United States Military Academy provides the honor guard and color guard for the event. [Read more…] about FDR’s 136th Birthday At West Point Tuesday
The Boards of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council and Greenway Conservancy for the Hudson River Valley will hold a joint Board Meeting on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY. [Read more…] about Hudson River Valley Greenway Board Meeting Oct 18th
Anthony Musso, author of Staatsburg: A Village Lost in Time (2014), will give a talk entitled “Staatsburg: Its Estate Owners and Their Impact on the Village” at Staatsburgh State Historic Site on April 11, 2015.
The tiny community of Staatsburg was once the home of several large estates. As Musso writes in his book on Staatsburg, each of the estates “had an impact on the character, finances and preservation of the village and its surroundings.” [Read more…] about Talk Planned On Staatsburg Estate Owners
Educators are invited to discover new ways to use the region’s special places to teach about controversy and decision making at In Conflict Crises: Teaching the Hudson Valley from Civil War to Civil Rights and Beyond. Registration is now open for THV’s annual institute, July 24-26, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home and Presidential Library in Hyde Park.
This year’s opening talk, Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Controversy and Connection in the Classroom of Life, will feature Kim and Reggie Harris, musicians, storytellers, educators, and interpreters of history. Accepting THV’s invitation they wrote, “Our nation’s history is filled with conflict, opposition, controversy, and crisis, but is also rich in perseverance, collaboration, determination, and compromise. We look forward to reflecting on ways to use these realities to prepare students to be thinkers and problem solvers.”
During the institute, more than 15 workshops will connect educators with historians, writers, and scientists, as well as their colleagues from schools, parks, and historic sites throughout the Valley. Topics include
Evaluating Scientific Claims (Cary Institute), Using ELA Common Core to Teach Controversy (Lewisboro Elementary School teachers), and Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State and the Civil War, (New York State Museum).
On day 2 of the institute participants will choose one of six in-depth field experiences at Columbia County History Museum (Kinderhook), Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site and FDR Presidential Library (Hyde Park), Fishkill Depot, Katherine W. Davis River Walk Center (Sleepy Hollow), Mount Gulian Historic Site (Beacon), or Palisaides Interstate Park.
You can find out more about the program online.
Photo: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, courtesy Bill Urbin, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, National Park Service.
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