Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Residence

Roosevelt House, at 47–49 East 65th Street, was designed as two adjoining but nearly identical townhouses, commissioned by Sara Delano Roosevelt as a Christmas gift for her son Franklin and his new wife, Eleanor. The six-story Beaux-Arts residences shared a single entrance and were connected by interior doors between their principal rooms. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt lived at 49 East 65th Street, while Sara occupied the adjoining 47 East 65th Street. Eleanor later recalled the difficulty of establishing a sense of independence while living next door to her mother-in-law. The house was the Roosevelts’ home during a formative period in both of their public lives. Franklin Roosevelt recovered from polio there in 1921, launched his political career in New York, and eventually became President of the United States. Eleanor was active in the Women’s Trade Union League and increasingly involved in issues of women’s rights and social reform.