Campobello, NB

After leaving Eastport, we had to backtrack across a series of small islands connected by bridges and causeways to Highway 1.  From there we headed to Lubec, the easternmost point in the United States, so that we could visit President Franklin Roosevelt's boyhood summer home, Campobello.  The home is actually located on a New Brunswick island off the coast of Maine.  You cross the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge to reach the island and the Roosevelt Campobello International Park.  This park is the only one of its kind because it is run by both the Canadian and American governments, even though the park is located in Canadian territory. 

Photo by:  Cherri

Roosevelt House and Museum

Kale Garden and FDR Shield on doorway of museum.  Notice the house in background.

Campobello always relied heavily on fishing as the mainstay of the island economy; however, the Passamaquoddy Bay region's potential for tourism was realized about the time Bar Harbor was beginning to develop. Campobello Island became home to a similar, although much smaller and more exclusive, development following the acquisition of some island properties by several private American investors. A luxurious resort hotel was built and the island became a popular summer colony for wealthy Canadians and Americans, many of whom built grand estates there.

Included in this group were Sara Delano and her husband James Roosevelt, Sr from New York. Sara Delano had a number of Delano cousins living in Maine, and Campobello offered a beautiful summer retreat from the New York weather, where their family members could easily visit. From 1883 onward, the Roosevelt family made Campobello Island their summer home. 

Their son, Franklin D. Roosevelt, future President of the United States, would spend his summers on Campobello from the age of one.  Loving the island and remembering his youth sailing on the nearby Bay of Fundy, Roosevelt acquired a larger property and built a 34-room "cottage," which he would use as a summer retreat until 1939. It was here that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., was born in August 1914. 

It was at Campobello, in August 1921, that the future president fell ill with polio, which resulted in his permanent paralysis from the waist down. Roosevelt did strive for seven years to try to regain use of his legs but never again walked unassisted.

Today Roosevelt Campobello International Park serves as a memorial to FDR and a symbol of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada.