The President as Architect : Franklin D. Roosevelts Top Cottage
by John G. Waite Associates, Architects
Category: Architecture

Richly illustrated with 120 photos and architectural drawings, this new book traces the history of Roosevelt's long-forgotten retreat near Hyde Park from the president's original drawings for the modest, two-bedroom cottage to its recent preservation by the Open Space Institute, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the National Park Service. Examines Top Cottage as a symbol of Roosevelt's love of the Hudson Valley and as one of the country's first barrier-free buildings. Top Cottage joins Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and Poplar Forest as the only homes designed by a U. S. president while in office. Few people knew it existed, what it meant to Roosevelt and how important it was to his heart, said John F. Sears, the former Executive Director of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Top Cottage expresses his need to get away, his love of nature and history, and his simple tastes. It wasn't pretentious and was built for informal living and his needs, and was very personal to him.