Val-Kill
"The greatest thing I have learned is how good it is to come home again." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Built in 1925, Val-Kill served at various times as a retreat for Eleanor Roosevelt and her friends, a furniture shop training local farmers, an multi-purpose shop including pewter making and weaving, a picnic site for the Roosevelt family and, finally, as the home of the First Lady after her husband died.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill
The main building at Val-Kill was originally a furniture factory.
Franklin Roosevelt described Eleanor as wanting in Val-Kill "a shack on a stream in the back woods and want, instead of a beautiful marble bath, to have the stream dug out so as to form an old-fashioned swimming hole."