 Sara Delano Roosevelt
on her honeymoon,
Rome, Italy, 1881 |
While James was a careful manager of his inherited wealth,
making money was not the center of his life. He preferred to
live the life of an English Country Squire - seeing to his horses
and cattle, hunting, fishing, iceboating, and riding on the grounds.
Sara shared James' affection for the place, declaring that the
Roosevelts were "living life as it should be." To young
Franklin, whose father passed on to him his love for the outdoors,
the estate's woods and fields were paradise. Springwood remained
the center of his life until he left for boarding school at 14.
In his later years Franklin reminisced about his childhood here:
"In thinking back to my earliest days, I am impressed
by the peacefulness and regularity of things both in respect
to place and people."
 
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