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After James Roosevelt died in 1900, Sara and Franklin, then
a freshman at Harvard, continued to live in the house. When he
married distant cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905, the young
couple moved in with Sara, in whose name the house remained until
her death in 1941. Franklin's work and political career required
that the family live elsewhere for long periods, but they returned
to Springwood whenever possible. During his years as Governor
of New York and President, Springwood was the nucleus of his
life and career.
Throughout his presidency he returned some 200 times for temporary
respite from Washington and for the nourishment Springwood gave
him. By 1944, ill and weary from the intensity of the war effort,
there was a note of finality when he said: "All that is
within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River."
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