Name/Title
Roosevelt Cottage | Roosevelt Campobello International Park | Campobello, New BrunswickDescription
From Sunrise County Architecture (2nd revised and enlarged edition) 1996, p.116-117:
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT COTTAGE
This Franklin Delano Roosevelt Cottage was built in 1897 for Grace and Hartman Kuhn of Boston (west of the Hubbard Cottage.) Boston architect Willard T. Sears (1837-1920), who designed the three hotels on Campobello Island, drew the plans for this cottage, while Stephen and John Tracartin, both of Lubec, are credited as the builders. Mrs. Kuhn's will, in 1908, stipulated that her next door neighbor, Sara Delano Roosevelt, should have first refusal of the estate's offer to sell (for $5,000) but only if Sara purchased it for its use by newly-married Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. F.D.R. obtained title on his mother's death in 1941, and Eleanor bought it from Franklin's estate in 1947. During the same year, she sold it to her son, Elliott Roosevelt, and in 1952 he sold it to Rose Hammer. Rose's son, Armand Hammer (1898-1990) of New York, donated the Cottage to the Park Commission in 1964. Originally the cottage had only a protruding center gable with but one section on that side. The section on the other side, added in 1913-1914, made this cottage a complete twoand-a-half story building with the second story shielded beneath the gambrel roofs lower part. Small dormers illuminate the top half-story on the seaward side. Sash windows, their top lights separated by mullions, dot shingled walls. The front entrance, covered by a small roof, is sheltered by a window. This Arts and Crafts style is repeated in the rear side toward the sea, except for the large 1897 picture window, a balcony and two-story veranda. The gambrel roof is like other examples ofthe 1890's revival of American-owned Hudson River-style, Dutch colonial houses. The principal change took place when the Hammer family replaced the original wooden piers with concrete. This wooden frame cottage had cedar shingles on the walls, and the original wooden roof shingles gave way to green asphalt ones.
Plaster and lath were used in the interior. The Roosevelts made an addition to the first floor in 1914, adding a bedroom, bath and study, with both a side entrance and a door to the living room and dining room. On the second story more bedrooms were added, with baths, while the attic contains several bedrooms for servants. The F.D.R. Cottage, with guided tours is open annually to visitors, 10 a.m. Atlantic (9 a.m. Eastern) to 6 p.m. Atlantic (5 p.m. Eastern) beginning on the Canadian holiday Victoria Day (always the Saturday immediately before Memorial Day in the United States). The park, including this cottage and the Hubbard Cottage next door, closes on Columbus Day in the United States, October 12, the same day which is celebrated as Thanksgiving Day in Canada. JCB, NHSD