Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Lindenwald: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site • Route 9H, Kinderhook. • Phone: (518) 758-9689. • Hours: May 20 to Oct. 31, daily. Guided tours are given from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In season visitation remains constant, with peaks on holiday weekends. Related story • Van Buren known as political manager

Franklin D. Roosevelt was not the only native son of the Hudson Valley to serve as president of the United States.

Well north of Roosevelt's Hyde Park home, along Route 9H near Kinderhook in southern Columbia County, is Lindenwald, the home of Martin Van Buren, our country's eighth president.

Van Buren was the first president born under the U.S. flag. A historical marker on Kinderhook's Hudson Street indicates the site of the Van Buren family tavern, where the president-to-be was born in 1782. He's buried in the family plot at the Kinderhook Reformed Cemetery. A memorial ceremony is held there each year on his birthday, Dec. 5.

"On every former deceased president's birthday, the current president sends a representative to place a wreath ont he grave," explains Judy Harris, assistant curator of Lindenwald, the 22-acre estate established in 1974 as the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. It's operated and the U.S. Department of Interior and is open for tours from mid-April to October.

After serving as president from 1837 to 1841, Van Buren came home and purchased what became Lindenwald in 1841, which was named for linden trees on the estate. He lived there for 21 years until his death in 1862 at the age of 79.

The house was built between 1700 and 1797 and renovated in the mid-19th century. Van Buren added rooms, kitchen ranges and a furnace. Among the more unique features inside were running water and a flush toilet.

Van Buren had the house painted tellow and explained "the idea of seeing in life, the changes which my hear would be sure to make after I am gone, amuses me."

The former president created large rooms on the first and second floor of the mansion by removing the central stairway in the entrance hall.

Fifty-one vividly colored wallpaper panels, imported from France, formed a mural-like hunting scene in the downstairs hall. Underneath was a wallpaper balustrade design. The original wallpaper on the two long walls was removed, restored and, after 10 years, replaced when Lindenwald came under the auspices of the federal government.

More than half of the furniture in in the room at one time belonged to Van Buren, says Harris.

Although they are no longer on the grounds now, there were once formal flower gardens and ornamental fish ponds outside the mansion. Some of the more obvious decorative features were a four-story brick tower, a central gable, attic dormers and "as beautiful a Prch as you eve rlaid eyes upon," wrote Van Buren.

Prior to his term in the White House, Van Buren, a lawyer, was a New York state senator, secretary of state and vice president of the U.S. under Andrew Jackson. Several non-flattering cartoons from his national service hang in Van Buren's book-lined library now, just as they did when he was in residence. He was able to see the humor in them, says Harris.

The room is dominated by a marble bust of the former president.

Van Buren's memory is now overshadowed by FDR, who was president within the lifetime of many Americans.

"He was considered, along with Andrew Jackson, to have been a founder of the Democratic Party, or what was the Democratic Party," says Wilson. "It's changed a great deal from what it was."

Van Buren served in the White House from 1837 to 1841. He ran for re-election in 1840 but was defeated by William Henry Harrison. He sought the Democratic nomination for president in 18 44, but lost to James K. Polk. In 1848 he was the unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Free-Soil Party, a group opposing an extension of slavery. That defeat marked the end of his political career.

Van Buren was referred to as "The Little Magician."

"It is said that he is a great magician," said Andrew Jackson. "I believe it, but his only wand is good common sense which he uses for the benefit of the country."

Van Buren carried on the Jackson policies; opposed the extension of slavery and the annexation of Texas; established at independent treasury and faced the worst economic depression in the country's history.

"He's one of the more forgotten presidents, I suppose," says Harris. "But there was a respected poll done by scholars, not more than 10 years ago, and Van Buren fell just about in the middle."