Before she built Val-Kill, ER had never had a home "of her own." Her parents' illnesses and separation meant that ER never stayed in one home for extended periods of time. When her mother died, young Eleanor went to live with her grandmother Hall, but as much as they cared for one another, ER never felt truly comfortable either at the Hall estate in Tivoli or the Hall house in New York City, tearfully telling one aunt "I have no real home." ⁽¹⁾ After she married FDR, the Roosevelts either lived with FDR's mother Sara Delano Roosevelt at Springwood, the Roosevelt estate, or in a townhouse adjacent to hers in New York City. As the wife of an elected official, she lived in public housing for sixteen years: four in the governor's mansion and twelve in the White House.

Unlike all the other places ER had lived, she could furnish Val-Kill exactly the way she wanted, invite whomever she wanted when she wanted, and use the grounds and apartments in any way she chose. In many ways, it was ER's most important home, the place she cherished above all other places she had lived. It was where she "could find herself and grow." ⁽²⁾
 

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Notes:

1. Quoted in Geoffrey C. Ward, "Eleanor Roosevelt Drew Her Strength from a Sanctuary Called Val-Kill, " Smithsonian 1984 15 (7) 62-63.
2. Eleanor Roosevelt,