Cowfeathers Farm to Foxcroft Farm: Spring Break...Part III-House Looking.

After watching Yummie and Poppie depart from the Thayer Hotel, we loaded our things into Denty (160k miles and squeaking like a chimp, er, I mean "champ") and had one last wander around West Point. Classes were back in session and the cadets were striding around the place in shiny shoes and little caps that look like upside down canoes.

We drove out of Highland Falls and up the hill that looks way down on West Point and the Hudson. Huz doesn't prefer to stop for these things, so I shot a photo over my left shoulder whilst at speed:

As you can see, the sky is very blue.

West point is the bit on the left, above the blurry rocky bit and next to the blue watery part.

From here we decided to go house looking. I am very fond of old houses. Exhibit A: Cowfeathers.
And, in this part of the country there are some swell old houses. The first one we went to also had a beautiful barn. I am also very fond of barns.
Here is the barn:

It looks a bit hyper. I think they were in the midst of painting it last fall when the weather asserted itself and they had to break for winter. I don't know if it will be all red, dark grey or light grey, but I think not all three. The area in the foreground is supposed to be roses. Just not yet. But where are the roses? Do they dig them up or what? Plant new every year? Roses are NOT annuals....maybe they just had a blight or something.

The house we went to see was called Springhill or maybe Springdale. But not Springfield. It's in Hyde Park, NY. This area of the Hudson River was the fall and spring residences for the hoity toity, and the year round residence for the hoi polloi. "Money" lived in New York for the winter. For, this was opera season. Then, they went to Hyde Park for a few weeks in spring, then to Newport for the summer, back to Hyde Park for the colors of fall. At a whim they could also head to any of their other multiple homes. At all these venues, you held parties or went to parties, or planned parties. These were the folks that either had money they had managed to keep, or made a lot of money. The "old money" was reluctant to accept the "new money" until the "new money" was at least 3 generations deep. The owners of Springhill/dale were "old money". They were the Roosevelts. They bought the house when they were raising kids. One of the kids was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who even though he had polio as a child was a real nature lover. He also grew up to be the President of the United States for 3 unprecedented terms and marry his cousin, Eleanor. She wasn't a first cousin or anything, they were 5th cousins once removed. I'll bet there are folks around here who are more closely related than that, and don't even know it. Besides, being related to your spouse wasn't unusual for the hoity toity then, as you were supposed to marry someone of your "class", and there were only 3 families in this class. Really. Even the Vanderbilts didn't qualify, as they were "new money". LOTS of new money.
So, FDR lived here during his presidency, coming up to the Hudson River Valley for breaks. Then, after he became a regular citizen again. This is what Springhill/dale looks like:

I had to blow this up a bit, so you could see both the house and the family on the steps. They are the only things I can claim here.

The kidlets sharing tea with the Bronze Roosevelts.

The FDR Presidential Library is also here, as are the graves of Eleanor and Franklin. Which, creepily enough, look fresh still, as they are dirt mounds over the graves. Someone keeps them looking just buried. Wonder how that job description reads....
After seeing the FDR home, we went to another little place on the Hudson.

This homey looking place belonged to the poorest of the Vanderbilt boys. Grandpa Cornelius made a big pile of money. Then he gave most all of his huge fortune to one son. That son doubled the family fortune in 10 years. He divided it only slightly less unevenly than his father and gave his youngest son (who was a bit introverted and did the unthinkable by eloping with an older divorcee- scandal) only 11 million or somesuch. So, he bought the required house on the Hudson- important for party season of spring and fall- only to find it was a dump. So, they had to build a house to have parties. Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt did well with their little portion of money. They had no children, but quite a few parties. And Frederick ran about a dozen successful corporations, mostly railroads, making money right through the depression. He died in 1938 with about 80 million dollars. He generously shared much of this with the government when he died. What was left was parcelled out to his trusted staff and a few relatives. The one who got the most was a favorite niece of his wife, Louise. The niece was pretty well off herself, so not needing the house- which was bequeathed to her, along with at least one of the other 4 residences, tried to sell it. In 1940, you could've bought this house, along with the surrounding 211 acres- with gardens harkening back to 1764 for $200,000.

This is what you can buy for $200,000 in Hyde Park today:

As you can see, we all missed a deal.
The niece couldn't unload it, even at bargain basement prices. So, sold to the US Government for $1.00 to become a National Park Service Historic Site.