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President Roosevelt's Summer Home


President Roosevelt's Summer Home
Photo Information
Copyright: Tom O'Donnell (gunbud) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 4477 W: 4 N: 3997] (18137)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-09-18
Categories: Architecture
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-02-03 21:52
Viewed: 1022
Favorites: 2 [view]
Points: 62
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Roosevelt Campobello International Park
A Canadian island with an Italian-sounding name on which an American president spent his summers? These little mysteries are not at all as difficult to solve as one might suppose.

Campobello Island is officially part of Canada, even though the major access road comes from Lubec ME. (You must pass through customs & immigration.) And the "Italian" name is nothing more than the name of a former Nova Scotian governor, William Campbell, with two "o's" added for exotic flavor.

When the island was granted to Captain William Owen by Governor Campbell in 1767, it was still part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. (The province of New Brunswick was not formed until 1784, when large numbers of United Empire Loyalists fled New England to live in King George III's still-loyal dominions to the north.)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's father, James, bought some land on the island in 1883, at a time when lots of important city people were building enormous "summer cottages" at Bar Harbor, Passamaquoddy Bay, and other northern coastal locations. Young Franklin—to solve that last little mystery—came here long before he was President of the United States, and spent many a teenaged summer rowing, paddling, and sailing on the waters, and hiking through the woods.

In 1920 FDR ran for the vice-presidency—and lost. Taking on a banking job instead, he looked forward to a relaxing summer at Campobello in 1921. On August 10 of that year, the first signs of illness showed, and two weeks later the doctors diagnosed his crippling disease as polio. When he left the island in September, he had no way of knowing that the few more times he would see the summer cottage and his Campobello friends would be brief weekend visits—as President of the United States.

The day-to-day lives of the great and powerful are fascinating to explore in detail, and a visit to the Roosevelt house on Campobello Island gives one a peek at the early years of this courageous man who went on to become governor of New York and President of the United States after having been crippled by polio.

It is no less intriguing to see how a well-to-do family spent its summers at the turn of the century, with long and leisurely days filled by sports, games, and family fun. Servants saw to the chores, and even they must have enjoyed getting away from the city to such a beautiful spot.

The Roosevelt Cottage is now part of Roosevelt Campobello International Park, a joint American-Canadian effort open the Saturday prior to Memorial Day through Columbus Day from 9am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time.
robertosalguero, delic, John_F_Kennedy, Floydian, snunney, lilimih33, Charo, trekks, AROBN54, Dyerco, plimrn, scobert, saylan-cb, denisn72, kiwi_explorer, zmey, jean11-3, cfreire, Bluejeans, pablominto has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Tom,

Interesting story associated with this house. I knew about it being Roosevelt's cottage but didn't know details of its history. The house is big and very colourful amid this mainly green landscape. Good light and nice angle to compose the image. Thanks Tom.

Roberto

Lovely colorful scene, the nice red house, the blue sky, the green meadow. Very nice place, well framed.

TFS,

Andreea

Fantastic picture Tom.Blue sky and the red house surrounded by a beautiful garden is really an wonderful sight.

TFS
Nara

  • Great 
  • delic Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1374 W: 63 N: 1795] (6240)
  • [2008-02-04 0:26]

Hello Tom,
Red on green is always nice. I think you managed the saturation level well here. Two-point perspective is effective. Very nice. Regards,
Hakan

A nice place for living. Wonderful view, good composition and what great light. Sharp, colours and details are excellent.
Best wishes,
Achim

Hi Tom,
What a beautiful house, but more impressive for me is your composition with the red house with the green lawn in front. Your 3 layer composition is very good created with the green, the house and the sky on top. Fresh, crisp and bright colors, just as i like to see them...great..!!!
Regards, Henk

Hello Tom,
A good composition of this imposing and beautiful house. Good point of view with great lighting. Very good colours and clarity.

Hello Tom!
Lovely house and beautiful colours, light, clarity in your composition!
Good point of view!
Best regards!
Lili

What a nice "cottage", Tom, and I wouldn't mind myself taking a little vacaction in New Brunswick. Well I guess my vacation home does not necessarly need as many rooms if I think of all the cleaning but a view to the beach would be nice :) I like that you have some of the garden in the photo and the green grass makes a great contrast with the red of the house. Beautiful corner indeed. Good work, Tom. Have a great day, Barbara.

  • Great 
  • Charo Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2585 W: 22 N: 4944] (19030)
  • [2008-02-04 3:42]

Hola Tom,
La casa es preciosa y los jardinas y naturaleza que la rodea también. El encuadre es estupendos con bonitos colores y estupendos contrastes. Interesante nota.
Cordialmente
Charo

Hi Tom
cette maison avec la forme d'une grange est splendide, le décor et les couleurs en font un petit paradis, bravo.
Amitiés
Jean-Pierre

Hi Tom,
Wonderful landscape. Beautiful clouds and sky.Nice composition, colours and lighting,
Georg

Hi Tom

Really nice to share this shot, I would not have visited nor view this historical place, not likely. Great work.

TFS, bill

Oh, man, Tom,
this is just beautiful. Wonderful light, stunning color and clarity, perfect contrast. I love the way the green all around that lovely old home is picked up in the trim work on the shutters and porches. What a wonderful day you had to photograph it, too. That is really beautiful. Great shot!! Thanks and have a good week,
Shelly

Hi Tom
You have captured the primary colours here and the exposure is spot on. The people in the flower garden add a nice touch.
Phil

  • Great 
  • plimrn Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3755 W: 232 N: 5047] (15955)
  • [2008-02-04 8:50]

Hi Tom,
I really like this compo. The colors arte tru with great clarity , the detail and framing are excellent. I especially like the broad expanse of grass with the sunlight and shadows and the great clouds. HLJ, Pat

Hey Tom,

A nicely composed and a very vivid and clear photo, superb sharpness and ambiance, a fitting frame. And an informative note on top of that.

Enjoy.

Hi Tom,
Beautiful shot. The light, colors and point of view are excellent.
Best regards.
Ahmet

Hi Tom,
A very summery shot with well saturated colors - that read abode really makes an impression. Good details and sharpness. Fine shot and TFS. Gerald

Hello Tom,
I just read your excellent historical narrative. FDR was a great athlete in his younger days and he had great strength and stamina. Even after his bout with polio he had tremendous upper body strength. He also had an iron will to match his physical powers. He was one of our greatest leaders, no doubt about that. This is a marvelous photo and your composition is simply superb! I like the shadow on the left. It adds some interest to the foreground. Without it, the large expanse of green grass would occupy too much of the frame. Beautiful iamge!
Stan

Hello Tom,
Nicely captured of the President's summer house in a bright sunny day!
perfect sharpness, vivid colour and details in the shot
many thanks for the notes
cheers
Tony

Hi Tom
Nice house. The colours are great and the details are so stunning! Nice point of view. The lush gree grass, the vivid blue sky and the red house fit well together. Congratulations!
Best regards
Denis!

Hi Tom,
Lovely scene wonderful place fit for a President to just unwind. You've also composed this well with the tree shadows and surrounding greenery offering a nice framing. I like the way you've positioned the house further back and leaving most of the foreground as the grass lawn ... gives the scene an expansive view. Image and color quality is also very good and so as the history details in your notes. Excellent work! tfs
Cheers,
Renier

  • Great 
  • jmcl Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2589 W: 146 N: 3421] (11904)
  • [2008-02-04 18:10]

Hi Tom,

Great note .. beautiful building .. the intense colors make this image just leap from the screen. Very nice.

take care,

John

Hi Tom,
Very nice colorful image and great composition and light,shadows are wonderful.
TFS/Regards

  • Great 
  • zmey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1307 W: 101 N: 1337] (5180)
  • [2008-02-05 8:32]

hello tom

a nice land-mark presentation. the colors are clear and bright and one's gotta love the lively green foreground for the red roosevelt house.

your note is very education, too. as usual :)

my compliments and TFS
kristaps

Hello Tom an interesting scene with excellent notes.
The composition is spot-on with beautiful colours and sharpness.The shadow of the tree just adds to the picture and breaks up the expanse of green lawn.
Tfs, regards Jean.

Hi Tom,
Splendid composition about this historic house. I loved the strong contrast among these colors and shadows on the left are very beautiful and its brought out the reddish of this house. Lovely work. Best Regards, Consuelo

Oi Tom ,
Que bonita esta tua foto , parece um cartão postal , muito interessante a arquitectura da casa , é um lugar fantastico para passear , bom enquadramento da foto , parabéns!!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

Beautiful shot.
I wish this was my summer house.
Nice colors in the grass and sky.
Kallie

Hello Tom,
First... My compliments for the interesting note! Not so often I read one of this length, hehehe...
But the image is striking too, the architecture is captured with very good details...
Effective point of view and wonderful late summer colours!
Greetings,
Pablo -

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