Roosevelt Campobello International Park

Our first "official" stop today was Roosevelt Campobello International Park. The park is administered by a commission created under an international treaty signed by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 22, 1964.

From 1883, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one year old, until he was stricken by polio in 1921, he spent most of his summers on the rugged and beautiful Campobello Island on Passamaquoddy Bay. Although his growing political responsibilities and health problems eventually limited his visits to Campobello, his love of the island and his long associations with its people left a lasting impression. After he became President, FDR returned to his summer home for three brief visits: in 1933, 1936, and 1939. Eleanor Roosevelt returned with the children and two of her friends in the summer of 1925 and again in 1933, 1935 and 1936.

Now known as the FDR summer home, the “cottage” was built in 1897 for Mrs. Hartman Kuhn, of Boston. A provision in Mrs. Kuhn’s will offered the cottage to FDR’s mother, Sara, for $5,000. Sara purchased the furnished cottage and five acres of land and gave the cottage to FDR and Eleanor. The growing family spent summers in the cottage from 1909 to 1921.

We had a nice visit at the cottage and the park and also enjoyed a picnic lunch afterwards.







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