By
The Associated Press
HYDE PARK, N.Y. - Own a piece of history: An 18-room mansion that once belonged to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is up for sale.
The home overlooking the Hudson River, one of several in Hyde Park that once belonged to the Roosevelt family, is being offered for $599,500 by Bernard Kessler, a lawyer. He and his brother bought the mansion from FDR's estate in 1963, and Kessler has used it as his law office.
"You can look out the window and see where the president grew up," Kessler told The New York Times, which reported on the pending sale Tuesday.
The nearby homes known as Springwood, where FDR was born, and Val-Kill, which was Eleanor Roosevelt's retreat, are preserved as historic sites by the National Park Service.
But the park service cannot afford to buy Kessler's mansion, said Sarah Olson, park superintendent for the Roosevelt National Historic Site.
The unexpected decision to sell has left preservation groups with little time to raise the money, according to the Times. Some residents fear that a new owner might tack on an unsightly wing, or worse, tear down the 1833 building and put up a modern one.
"We would be very concerned if that house were lost," Olson said. "It was a Roosevelt house, and it has historic value because it was part of the property as it originally existed."
Originally painted dark red and known as the Red House, the mansion reflects the privileged life of the Roosevelt family.
It was acquired by James Roosevelt, the president's father, in 1868 and given to James Roosevelt Roosevelt, his son from his first marriage. The son, nicknamed Rosy, added the redundant middle name because he disliked "junior." He married an heiress and devoted himself to stag hunting and yacht racing.
Rosy died in 1927 and left the Red House to his only sibling - his half brother, Franklin. But Rosy's second wife, Elizabeth, and then his daughter, Helen Roosevelt Robinson, lived in the mansion until 1962. FDR became president in 1933 and died in 1945.
The president's estate sold the mansion, along with two servants' cottages and 145 acres of land, for $195,000 in 1963.
