Hyde Park is a humble community, a little sprawling, a little downscale, but although the city itself is far from proud or large, the visitors keep coming. This is where Franklin D. Roosevelt was born and where he and his wife lived. Once, the Vanderbilts resided here as well.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's mansion still stands in Hyde Park and it's a warm place, despite its opulence. The mansion has been restored to reflect his final visit to his home in March 1945. Even the magazines and books he was reading at the time have been placed as they were when he last used them. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum is next to his mansion and documents the life of this great American leader. But this isn't the only famous Roosevelt home. Eleanor Roosevelt, fed up with her husband's mother-in-law, his cronies, and an affair, commissioned her own house. This was Val-Kill, now known as the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historical Site. It was two miles from the main house and she lived there on weekends. Although the house was small, a cottage, really, Eleanor not only entertained the world's greatest leaders here, but wrote the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights.

The Vanderbilt mansion was the polar opposite of Eleanor's simple cottage. Nearly $2.5 million were poured into building this show of extravagance in 1899, gardens, coach house, and all. A rather quieter and more modern attraction is the Culinary Institute of America, a chef school housed in an old seminary. There are five restaurants on campus, all award-winning, all student maintained.

Hyde Park is off of I-87S about 65 miles south of Albany. For more information on Hyde Park, look at the links on the sidebar.