AUCTION OF ROOSEVELT BELONGINGS BRINGS LESS THAN $300
Hyde Park, New York (JFK+50) On August 11, 1963, The Sunday Star reports "some 200 items, many of them personal belongings of the late President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, were put up for auction."
Two wooden trunks bearing the initials FDR were sold for only $2.50 each while a third brought $3.00. The total sale for the auction was less than $300.
Most of the items had been gathering dust in the Roosevelt cottage called "Val Kill"*.
The auctioneer was "disgusted" by the poor response.
JFK+50 NOTE
The highest bid of the auction was $27.00 for a Roosevelt vase.
*Val Kill, home of Eleanor Roosevelt, is located on the Hyde Park, NY Roosevelt estate two miles east of FDR's home (Springwood). It was declared a National Historic Site in 1977.
SOURCES
"Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York," National Park Service, www.nps.gov/
"Roosevelt Items Bring Only Pittance at Sale," The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., August 11, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
