I had been looking into a few of the closer upstate New York national parks for ages, but because of Covid access was limited. I was looking into it again a few days ago and saw that they were all open (FINALLY) so I hopped on this chance and went! Because why not?
Day 1
I got up at around 5:30am and left at 6:15. I thought I’d grab a donut from Dunkin Donuts before heading out since I most likely would be skipping lunch. The plan was to hit a park near Albany then drive to Scranton, PA to see another before driving back to Poughkeepsie, NY to stay overnight in a hotel. On paper that seemed like a breeze! Indeed the drive out wasn’t hard since I took the Mass Pike the whole way and traffic wasn’t bad.
I got to the Martin Van Buuren National Historic Site about an hour before the tour because it seemed like I misjudged the tour time. Not really a big deal because it gave me time to grab a bb8 picture and read all the signs. The visitors center basically is nonexistent because of Covid, so there was no patch sadly. (I collect the NP patches).
The tour started at 10am and I was the only one on it! It is BY FAR the nicest pre-civil war presidential house I’ve been to I think. There are a lot of rooms in it and they are all really nice considering the time period. The architecture was interesting too. There were windows in the basement to help with light (didn’t need as many candles), bell pulls for the servants (Martin Van Buuren didn’t have slaves), and a 4.5 story Italian themed tower. Martin van Buuren is most well known for being one of the worst presidents of all time. Basically this was because he had a terrible economic crisis during his presidency and did some questionable stuff during that time. For example, when he moved into the White House he spent $20,000 on new furniture and repairs (about $617,000 in 2022). Meanwhile everyone else was suffering in the crisis. Another big purchase was the house (on the tour) at around $14,000ish ($432k in 2022). One interesting thing about him is that he was the 2nd shortest president at just 5’6. Compared to the doorways in the house he was short! Oh and he also bought a coffee press for $2500 lol ($77k in 2022). He was the 8th President of the United States of America.
Later after his presidency the house went through the major change of adding an addition (the 2nd half of the house + the Italian tower). Basically the family that owned the house wanted a more private living space and wanted all guests / cousins and such to stay in the older main house. Kind of weird I think. After the tour I didn’t have a whole lot to see since the town was tiny and this national historic site is literally the house tour and some bathrooms. Next up: Scranton!
It took nearly 3 more hours of driving, mostly in the rain, to reach Steamtown National Historic Site. This is the perfect place for a train enthusiast to visit. All the locomotives are the real deal and there are train rides. Although I couldn’t go on one since they are usually only on certain days of the week and I came on the wrong day. Since I don’t know much about trains I walked around for a bit.
The main building is the turntable right in the center. When a locomotive returns it enters the center and spins around to the correct door. Really cool to finally see a functional one in person. You can walk around the inside of the building to see the trains, history museum, and watch a movie. I did the movie first, which was a bit interesting I suppose.
Basically this place was the main hub for a few different railroad companies in northeastern PA. Back in the early 1800’s people were stuck with horse and buggy to travel around the country, but in the late 1800’s that all changed when railroads started really taking over. Steamtown was mostly freight trains, but also had a fair amount of passenger trains too. The Pullman company had cars here! (You might recall Pullman as the terrible CEO of the Chicago train manufacturer from my trip to Iowa.)
The trains used coal first, then anthracite, then diesel electric, and eventually just electric. Regular coal is dirty and not very fun to mine, while anthracite is a cleaner burning more efficient form of coal. One section of the round house is devoted to train storage and repairs. It was really cool to walk around on the catwalk and see all the different trains being worked on! When I went it wasn’t super busy and it was raining. Luckily BB8 is plastic so he didn’t care too much.
The way back took what felt like ages since it was mostly overcast skies. I took the shortcut route. Usually google maps gives you the main highway route and the “faster” scenic route. I took the 2nd option this time since it would save me about 25 miles of driving. Before arriving at the hotel I got some fish and chips at Cabernet Franks in the ghost town of Parksville, NY. The town really felt like a ghost town with the overgrown abandoned buildings and such. It was actually pretty surprising to find a restaurant here and taking into account what they had to work with I’d say it was worth the stop. The food wasn’t out of this world (it was still good haha no worries), but the local people there were super nice. An hour later I rolled into another Best Western and went to bed shortly after at 8pm. I wrote this portion at 5am when I woke up. 🙂
Day 2
When scoping out this trip it was a bit confusing to schedule all the tour times, but you know me…I always make things work. Usually I’m out of the hotel by 4-6am, but today I got to sleep in until 9am! (Except I’m awake writing this at 6:30am).
A few hours later I woke up and after about 15 minutes of packing up I was ready for my first house tour of the day. The Vanderbilt (Mansion) NHS was build during the Gilded Age as the park ranger called it. (A bunch of tycoons all at once). Mr. Vanderbilt owned a bunch of railroads at just the right time and thus amassed a fortune. He had 4 children who each inherited a share of the money when he died. They competed over who could build the biggest and most luxurious mansion like all kids would do of course.
The house itself is 3 stories plus a basement and sub basement. It was made largely out of marble. Apparently 95% of the stuff inside is authentic. So that chair over there? That is the real deal. At some point central heating got added to the house. The sub basement housed a bunch of large coal burners that powered it. Nowadays, they can’t turn it into air conditioning because of all the coal dust still inside the walls. Just like the Martin Van Buuren house there were innovations like pressured water and electricity throughout the house.
It is almost certain that the water pressure was from the use of water towers, however the ranger on the tour said it wasn’t known how they pumped the water into the tower. As for the electricity…the house was supported by metal beams which saved money on wiring. They ran the length of the house so electricity went to all floors. (Less wiring I guess? I don’t know haha).
After the Vanderbilt house I went to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) National Historic Site. The tour their reminded me of the LBJ ranch, except no cows and a bit more posh. Before he became president he contracted polio and much of his presidency was spent trying to hide it from the public. In his house he had a ramp to the meeting room / study. It could be removed revealing stairs. There was also an elevator, which he didn’t really want in his home because he was terrified of it starting a fire. He had a few wheelchairs inside as well. When at a desk he would put a blanket over his lower half so that it looked like he was just sitting in a regular chair.
As President he had to contend with the Great Depression and WW2. Lovely stuff. He created the New Deal. This helped push America through the great depression and made the war effort much easier. (Sorry if this is all vague, I’m going mostly off of memory). One pretty cool thing was he had a direct phone line from his bed to the White House. I also got to see a Bentley car in person, which was neat since most cars are not $200k haha.
The Queen died literally seconds after I finished the house tour. 🙁 Rest in peace Queen Elizabeth II.
After the house tour I had a quick bite to eat then decided to cram in one more park. This is a prime example of the fabled “100 mile detour”. Basically my limit for a trip detour is 100 mi or less one way. Saint Paul’s Church NHS happens to be 88 miles away from the FDR house so off I went! It didn’t take too long to reach the site, but once I was there I was glad it was a fairly quiet day because otherwise parking would’ve been almost impossible. The church itself is pretty small by church standards, but the cemetery behind it has over 8,000 graves. Actually really surprising considering how compact the community seemed to be. The church was built in 1665 and was later used during the Revolutionary War. Back in revolutionary times you had to pay for a booth. Generally the closer you were to the front, the richer you were. Everyone was allowed into church at the time, even if you had no money or you were a slave. They were either standing at the back of the church or in the balcony. There was also a good bit of history surrounding WW2 (I think, maybe it was WW1), but most of the stuff on the tour was about the colonial times.
Around the end of the church tour I was getting a bit concerned that I would get stuck in NYC traffic after sunset so I left the church right as it closed at 5pm. It took about 3 hours 45 minutes to drive home. New record? I got home at about 8:50pm. Overall fantastic 2 day trip!
Trip Stats
Estimated Milage: 670mi
Hotel rating: 9/10 (point off for no bagels at breakfast)
States visited: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut
Patriots fans seen in New York: 3
You must be logged in to post a comment.