Val-Kill Industries
Encyclopedia
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
established Val-Kill Industries in 1927 with Nancy Cook
Nancy Cook
Nancy Cook was an American suffragette, teacher, part owner of the Todhunter School and an intimate of Eleanor Roosevelt.-Birth and early life:...
, Marion Dickerman
Marion Dickerman
Marion Dickerman was an American suffragette, educator, vice-principal of the Todhunter School and an intimate of Eleanor Roosevelt.-Birth and early life:...
, and Caroline O'Day, three friends she met through her activities in the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Party. Val-Kill was located on the banks of a stream that flowed through the Roosevelt family estate in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Eleanor and her business partners financed the construction of a small factory to provide supplemental income for local farming families who would make furniture, pewter, and homespun cloth using traditional craft methods. Capitalizing on the popularity of the Colonial Revival, most Val-Kill products were modelled on eighteenth-century forms.
Nancy Cook, a trained artisan and teacher, designed most of the furniture and managed the factory which employed anywhere from three to eight men during its decade-long operation. Eleanor promoted Val-Kill through interviews and public appearances. Dickerman and O'Day were financial investors, but not actively involved in the business. The principal craftsmen at Val-Kill were immigrants, among them Frank Landolfa, Otto Berge, Arnold Berge, and Nelly Johannesen and her son, Karl. Val-Kill Industries never became the subsistence program that Eleanor and her friends imagined, but it did pave the way for larger New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
initiatives during FDR
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's presidential administration.
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
compelled the women to dissolve the partnership in 1938, at which time Eleanor Roosevelt converted the shop buildings into a cottage that eventually became her permanent residence after FDR died in 1945. Otto Berge acquired the contents of the factory and the use of the Val-Kill name to continue making colonial-style furniture until he retired in 1975.
Today, the site of Val-Kill Industries is preserved by the National Park Service as Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site consists of approximately two miles east of Springwood, the Hyde Park Roosevelt family home.-History:...
.