Parks Service Hopes To Get Back Roosevelt Items In Auction

HYDE PARK, NY – Eleanor Roosevelt’s beloved Val-Kill cottage is crammed full with evidence of her busy life: Family photos on the wall, homey chairs for the many guests who came through, a simple desk for writing. However, the national historic site might soon get a bit more crowded.

Headed to the auction block at Christie’s in February is a collection of books, paintings, furniture and jewelry once owned by the Roosevelt family, most of it from Val-Kill. The National Park Service hopes to buy items back with the help of private funds raised by a preservation group.

“I would just think it’s a shame for these items to be scattered throughout the country,” said Claudine Bacher, chairwoman of the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Preservation Project. “They belong in Mrs. Roosevelt’s home.”

Val-Kill was built for Eleanor in 1925 as a getaway from the more formal Roosevelt estate a few miles away on the river. After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Eleanor continued to live part-time at Val-Kill. She spent days there working, picking flowers, entertaining guests and walking her Scotties until her own death in 1962.

Her son John Roosevelt sold Val-Kill to developers in 1970, but a local group fought to make the cottage a National Historic Site. They won in 1977, but not before some of Eleanor’s possessions were sold off.

Parks officials have been able to get many items donated back to them over the years. They also make piecemeal appropriations as they can afford them. This summer, an ivory powder box owned by Eleanor was purchased on e-Bay.

Anne Jordan, a curator for the Roosevelt and Vanderbilt historic sites in Hyde Park, estimates that Val-Kill today holds 40 percent of the items that were there during Eleanor’s lifetime.

Jordan said the parks service does have some money budgeted to use for the February auction. However, the bulk of the money would have to come from private sources.

Fund-raising duties have been taken on by the Val-Kill preservation group, which was formed as part of the private-public Save America’s Treasures program. Bacher said her group is trying to raise “a couple of hundred thousand dollars” from private donors. Some $50,000 or more has already been collected or pledged, she said.

Jordan said the auction is a critical opportunity to recover lost treasures which had been inherited by the late John Roosevelt. The material also includes some items that came from the main Roosevelt estate and even FDR’s own personal retreat, Top Cottage. FDR’s Library & Museum in Hyde Park is coordinating with the parks service to bid on some of the items.

Much of the lot is books – including a copy of Truman Speaks inscribed by the former president to “the First Lady of the World.” Also included are a family coat of arms, a Western watercolor by artist Leonard Reedy, silverware monogrammed AER for “Anna Eleanor Roosevelt,” her full Christian name, Jordan said.

It’s a jumble of pieces, but Jordan said it fits Val-Kill’s eclectic personality. “It’s important for the house to have this wonderful mixture of this woman’s wealthy heritage and the ability of this woman to make people feel welcome despite their class,” she said.

The fund-raising campaign is personally important to Bacher, whose family came to America in 1942 after fleeing Nazi-occupied France. The 65-year-old Bacher was a girl vividly remembers her family’s reverence for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. “The Roosevelts were veritable icons in our home,” she said.