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Val-Kill

Val-Kill Industries & The American Arts and Crafts Movement

October 19, 2022 by Holley Snaith 2 Comments

Roosevelt, O'Day, Dickerman, and Cook 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

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Art History, Arts and Crafts Movement, Dutchess County, Eleanor Roosevelt, Furniture, Hyde Park, Material Culture, Val-Kill

Elliott Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill

December 24, 2020 by A. J. Schenkman Leave a Comment

Elliott Roosevelt and 3 Year Old in NYC 12-11-1948“Last week I acquired from my husband’s estate about two-thirds of the land which he owned here in Hyde Park. My son Elliott and I have gone into partnership and we are going to farm the land on a commercial basis,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her “My Day” column on August 19, 1947.

This would be the beginning of a joint venture with her third child Elliott to turn a profit from the estate lands of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Elliott Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Christmas, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt NHS, FDR, Forestry, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Holidays, Val-Kill, winter

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