First Floor
The room visitors first enter was originally used as a schoolroom and play room. Later, during President Roosevelt’s three return visits, it was used as a reception room and office. Today it is a small museum containing both a display of photographs symbolizing FDR’s four terms of office and various furnishings and artifacts related to FDR and his family’s summer activities. Paraphernalia of fair and foul weather summer pastimes include oars, water wings, games, toys, and model ship-making tools and supplies.
Just up the short hall is the bedroom used by Franklin and Eleanor’s son James, and later used by the secret service. James once reminisced, “My memories of this rugged, rocky island are wonderful ones. It was here father taught me to swim and how to sail a boat. With no telephone and electricity, the beauty of nature, especially in summer, was in no way spoiled, and Campobello was a wonderful haven from the cares of the world.” Across the hall from James’ bedroom is the room used by the children’s tutor. FDR used this bedroom in 1933, when he returned as President for an overnight visit.
Most furnishings in the living and dining rooms are original Roosevelt items. At the turn of the century, wicker furniture was very much in vogue in resort areas and was widely used in summer cottages. The tea set on display in the living room is reminiscent of Eleanor Roosevelt’s daily custom of serving tea from her Wedgewood tea set, either in the living room or on the porch.
Scatter rugs in the dining room were designed and hand-hooked by Campobello residents. When numerous dining guests were present, the youngest children, John and Franklin, were assigned to eat at the small table in front of the two windows. Through the wide windows, visitors look across the bay to Eastport, Maine.
Near the kitchen is the food pantry. Here are items used for food and beverage preparation: a cake mixer, meat press, muffin pans, molds for boiled cakes or puddings, and gelatin molds. Built-in storage for large bags of flour and sugar was convenient for preparation of cakes, cookies, pies, and breads. Food was refrigerated in wooden ice chests. Island men cut the ice in the winter from Lake Glensevern and stored it in sawdust in the ice house just north of the cottage.
The spacious kitchen offered the cook and servants plenty of room to prepare food. Meals were served from the adjoining butler’s pantry. Near one wall is a large, white enamel, coal and wood-burning stove. Prior to the President’s 1933 visit, his mother, Mrs. Sara Roosevelt, had the stove installed; coincidentally, the stove bears the model name PRESIDENT across its oven door. Food could be kept warm in the warming oven on top of the stove or bread dough could be kept there to rise before baking. The previous kitchen stove had been a large,
cast-iron wood stove. A small kerosene stove was used to start vegetables and other foods, which were then transferred to the wood stove to finish cooking.
At the northernmost end of the first floor, just off the kitchen, is the laundry room; it contains artifacts that were common in laundry rooms of the era. Moving the handle back and forth on the old-fashioned, wooden washing machine worked the agitator to stir the clothes inside. Wash boards were used to hand wash clothes and were kept in soapstone sinks. An unheated “mangle” pressed wrinkles from damp clothes. The clothes were then hung to dry on wooden racks. The pot-bellied stove heated water, and was also used to heat flatirons for
ironing. Personal laundry was washed at the cottage. The man who delivered drinking water picked up the house laundry (soiled linen) and empty water jugs; he would later return with fresh drinking water and clean laundry.
| To Top of Page |  |