The Swimming Pool

The swimming pool and terrace at Val-Kill.

Quick Facts

Location:

Hyde Park, NY

Significance:

Home of Eleanor Roosevelt

Designation:

National Historic Site

The swimming pool provided FDR with one of his few opportunities for rigorous physical exercise. Constructed in 1935, it replaced an earlier pool fed naturally by the adjacent pond. The new swimming pool was necessary to meet water filtration requirements established by FDR’s doctors when he became President of the United States.

The new pool was designed by M. K. Hasbrouck, also responsible for the President’s swimming pool at the White House (still beneath what is today the White House Press Room). The new pool at Val-Kill measures 50 by 20 feet and holds 9 feet of water at the deep end.

Eleanor Roosevelt enjoyed the swimming pool as well. Friends of Eleanor remembered her swimming daily, and "her effort to go off the diving board head first was a demonstration of sheer grit: she bent over the edge slowly, her fingers reaching toward her toes, at last tilting into the pool with a great splash. She never mastered it; she never gave up trying….Whoever interested her was invited to spend the day at Val-Kill and told to bring his bathing suit.”

In addition to grandchildren, family, and friends, distinguished guests who enjoyed the refreshing waters of this pool included Sir Winston Churchill and King George V. The recent restoration of the swimming pool was an official National Park Service Centennial project, with financial support from the park's philanthropic partner, The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership.