Evening star., 1933-10-21
Preservation of Landmarks
Has Roosevelt As Leader
Presidents Boyhood Experience and
Later Service in Behalf of Historic
Places Recalled in National MOve.

President Roosevelt is leader in the
| movement to halt destruction of the
J Nations landmarks, according to DR..
Leicester B. Holland, chairman Of the
Committee on Preservation Of Historic
Buildings of the American Institute OF
Architects.
! Interest in the movement has grown
amazingly in the last few months, and
indicates, as nothing else does, the fact
that the United States is growing up"
says Dr.. Holland who is director Of the
Fine Arts Division Of the Library OF
| Congress.
President Roosevelts zeal in behalf
Of historic architecture dates from
Holland relates, "a little boy played
beneath the trees Of an old house in
Dutchess County, New York, which had
been standing s.pce the Revolution.
'Whilc the boy grew. the owners
movcd away and left the house to the
ruin Of time, OF it was pulled down
to make way foc scme modern archi-
lecture Anyhow, years later, when
that boy searched vainly for some rec
ord OF the house, he came to realize
how rapidly such dwellings Of the Co.
ionial period in New York were disap-
pearins before the march Of modern
civilization. and that within few years
they might be all gone. That boy was
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Eeadcd Survey Group.
"Nhcn he became Governor he was
appointed by the Holland Society Of
, New YORK as chairman of a group to
! make a survey of old buildings in his
State As result the society. headed
by Gov. Roosevelt for several years,
has recorded some of the most interest
! ing historical monuments In the United
States. At that time Mr.. Roosevelt
said that the preservation OF old build
| ings was chiefly significant in SO FAR
as it reveals the living conditions Of q
period and the capacity Of the people
who occupied them.
"Mr. Rooseveit's home at Hyde Park
is of historic value. 1t is built on land
that was touched by the first white
man who visited the Hudson River.
Bold adventures, fur traders who dealt
| With Indians, and navigators who were
seeking a trade route to the Orient,
divided the Hudson into sailing courses
and gave names to the successive
! reaches
THE Long Reach is straight channel
| 10 miles long which extends from the
vicinity Of the present Hyde Park
southwark. At the northern end is
I bend in the river called in the seventh
century Kromne Elleboog. or crooked
elbow Roosevelt'S home at Hyde Park
| has taken that Dutch name-Kromme
Elleboog. It is not the ancestral home
of the Presidents family, however, but
was bought by his father after the old
! Roosevelt home which adjoined the
present place was burned.
The West is still young and has
| little\ to preserve, but 1t is Of intense
interest to know that in such places as
Northern Minnesota, where vast lands
, remain in their primitive state, old
trails and canoe portages are being pre-
served as they were hundreds of years
! ago, SO that in one nights time you
can step from the twentieth century
into seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
tury world.
Atlantic States Activity.
, while all parts Of the country are
, interested in the preservation program
! activity Is greatest in the Atlantic
States. Perhaps the New Englanders
! first showed very active interest. The
! Society for the Preservation of New
England Antiquities was organized in