Reviving Dutch
colonial architecture in the Hudson Valley became a very important project
for FDR and in the introduction to Helen Wilkinson Reynold's 1928 book
Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776, he expressed his desire to
preserve the past: "The genesis of my interest in Dutch Houses of the
Hudson Valley Before 1776 lies in the destruction of a delighteful old
house in Dutchess County….when I was a small boy; for, many years
later, in searching vainly for some photograph or drawing of that house I
came to realize that such dwellings of the colonial period in New York as
had stood until the twentieth century were fast disappearing before the
march of modern civilization." The homes, according to Franklin
Roosevelt, provided great "information as the manners and customs of
the settlers of the valley of the Hudson" and the "extremely
simple" living of both wealthy and small landowners served as an
example of how one should live.
This house on
Crosby Place, Rhinebeck and the William Stoutenburgh House in Hyde Park
were typical 18th and mid-18th century Dutch homes in measurement,
materials, and plan.
