The Home Farm

The barn complex at the Roosevelt's Home Farm, 1945. FDR Library photo.

Springwood included two main houses overlooking the Hudson River and an estate farm complex on the east side of the Post Road that the Roosevelts called the Home Farm. While the Roosevelt place reflected the growing extent of country places in the Hudson Valley following the Civil War, James Roosevelt did little to alter the older rural character of the landscape and continued to operate it as a traditional gentleman's farm.

 

Model Farming in the Hudson Valley

In contrast to the yeoman farms of the Hudson Valley region, agriculture practiced by gentleman farmers (those for whom farming was not their primary occupation) on the riverfront estates did not generally operate to produce a profit, but rather to supply their estates and often showcase model agricultural practices. As Munsy’s Magazine reported in an 1899 article on these estate farms: “We read much of the poultry, the eggs, the milk which come to the market from the ‘farm sides’ of some of these estates along the Hudson. In spite of these sales, the gentleman farmer generally finds that his agricultural operations are on the wrong side of the ledger. Next to maintaining a first class steam yacht the most expensive pursuit is conducting a country seat.”

Model farming practices followed a tradition of rural improvement among gentleman farmers that dated back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the countryside surrounding major Northeastern cities. Similar to the European landed elite, American gentleman farmers often considered their estates models of enlightened husbandry for the surrounding population. Here, they introduced such advances as horticultural experimentation, improvements in livestock breeding, and use of fertilizers. During the mid- and late-nineteenth century with advances in scientific agriculture juxtaposed by the decline of their neighboring yeoman farms, many gentleman farmers sought to impart methods of efficiency, science, and profitability. The didactic impact of the model farms, however, was often limited. Model farms instead tended to provide a source of employment for impoverished yeoman farmers, and also lent the appearance of a thriving farm economy to an otherwise declining agricultural region.

Most of the grand country places that were established during the mid and late nineteenth century in the vicinity of Hyde Park included farms, and by the resources that were put into them, they were not necessarily “model,” although some made a more concerted effort to impact agricultural improvement to area farmers. Despite their size and opulence during this period, many country places in Hyde Park still reflected the earlier patterns established by tenant and free hold farmers in the eighteenth century, and tended to follow the pattern of house and pleasure grounds on the west side of the road closest to the river, known as the “park” and the farm on the west or upland side of the road. As Munsey’s Magazine described in its 1899 article about the estates, “Most of the properties along the Hudson are divided into a ‘park side’ and a ‘farm side.’ The division is generally made by a country road.”

 

The Roosevelt farm gang. FDR Library photo.

The Roosevelt Home Farm

FDR’s father, James Roosevelt, established the center of his farm operation across the Post Road on the eastern half of a 116-acre tract he purchased in 1868. Called the Home Farm, the existing eighteenth-century farmhouse and barn provided Springwood with an estate farm. As a gentleman farmer, Roosevelt practiced diversified agriculture that provided a range of products for his family. He maintained dairy cows, pigs, chickens, and horses, and raised fodder crops in the fields. The showpiece of the farm was James's herd of Alderney (Jersey or Guernsey) cattle, which he had started in 1848 at his former home, Mount Hope, and continued to improve into the 1890s. The vegetable garden (or Home Garden) was on the west side of the road, north of the big house. Although the farm was centered on the east side of the road, agriculture did not disappear from the west side of the Post Road, where the front fields and the sloping ground west of the houses were used for growing crops such as hay, corn, and wheat.

James Roosevelt made a number of improvements to the existing farm. In order to meet progressive dairy farming practices, he added to the barn a rectangular silo with a gable roof, and a number of wings. He also probably added a number of small sheds that together with the barn and farmhouse enclosed a small barnyard bordered by a plank fence. North and south of this farmstead were two rectangular cultivated fields that bordered the Post Road, known as the North Farm Lot and the South Farm Lot. Located on the rich solds of the river terrace, these fields were bounded by stone walls and were used to grow grains and hay for the livestock. To the south, an East Farm Lot probably contained cultivated fields and an orchard, and a Night Pasture located adjacent to the barns.

Following James's death in 1900, FDR planned to run the farm on a more scientific and efficent bases, as part of his overall improvement and expansion of the estate. During this time, FDR replaced the earlier frame silo with an 80-ton crane-wrapped silo. Smaller buildings around the barnyard included an implement shed, granary, manure shed, two bull stalls and pens, two brooder houses, and a chicken coop. A major improvement during the 1910s was construction of a modern milk house (dairy) at the southwest corner of the barnyard.

The home garden provided a rich variety of food—potatoes, raspberries, peas, celery, cherries, apples, tomatoes, grapes, eggplants, currants, gooseberries, corn, onions, beets, cabbage, beans, carrots, watermelon, broccoli, leeks, lettuce, spinach, okra, and parsnips. The farm also was home to several beehives for the purpose of harvesting honey.

Larger crops, such as rye, wheat, oats, and apples, milk, cream and butter from the dairy, and eggs and poultry were sold locally to offset some of the farm’s operating costs.

Many employees were required to manage the farm. The Roosevelts employed a farm manager (Gilbert Logan) and several farm hands, a head gardener (William Plough), groundskeepers, a poultry man (Mr. Gallinger), dairymen, and numerous seasonal laborers as needed.