- 1). Begin at the visitor's center and after watching an orientation film at guide will take you to the house. Stepping onto the terrace over by the service wing, to the right you'll first see FDR's office, from which he ran his first presidential campaign and later discharged his duties while vacationing here. Go left across the terrace, through the front door into the main hall, which is part of the original house.
- 2). Continue left down the side hall past the "snuggery," the private sitting room of FDR's domineering mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. To the left of this is the vast living room/library. There are portraits in this room of FDR, his great-grandfather James Roosevelt and his great-great-grandfather Isaac Roosevelt. Every Christmas FDR would sit in one of the leather chairs by he fireplace and read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to his grandchildren, acting out all the voices.
- 3). Go back north down the side hall to the Dresden room, a music room which takes its name from a Dresden chandelier. To the right is the dining room, which served as the command center on election nights.
- 4). Take the stairs to the second floor and turn left to see FDR's boyhood bedroom, which was where he stayed up late at night reading a dictionary, startled at how many words he didn't know. Across the hall are the Pink room, bathroom and Chintz room. Continue to the left to see the morning room and Blue room. occupied by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. FDR was born in the Blue room in 1882.
- 5). Proceed on to the south wing over the living room and turn left. At the end of the hall is Sara Roosevelt's room, which served as a sitting room after her death in 1941. To the right of this is Eleanor Roosevelt's comparatively small bedroom, stuck symbolically, between the rooms of her mother-in-law and husband. Eleanor's room even lacked a private bathroom. On the southwest corner is FDR's room, which includes the bed of his famous Scottish terrier, Fala. Next to the bedroom is FDR's dressing room, with one of his wheelchairs. There are other extra family, guest and servants' rooms on this and the third floor, but they're not open for tours.
- 6). Exit down the fire escape and explore the grounds. North of the house is the laundry, coach house and stables, large ice house, gardener's cottage, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum and the rose garden, where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Fala are buried. You can also arrange tours to see Top Cottage and Val-Kill, the retreats built by FDR and Eleanor, respectively, to get away from the bustle of the main house.
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