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last updated 8 January 2015

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The home of FDR’s intimate friend

Wilderstein, a 35-room Queen Anne mansion, overlooks the Hudson River near Rhinebeck, N.Y., said Barbara Ireland in The New York Times. Featuring a five-story turret, a rambling porch, and a lavish interior designed by Joseph Burr Tiffany, a cousin of Louis Comfort Tiffany, this wooden Victorian masterpiece was home to Margaret Suckley until 1991, when she died just before her 100th birthday. A suitcase discovered under her bed after her death contained letters “with distinctly romantic overtones” from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who owned a secret hideaway called Top Cottage just three miles away. Wilderstein, which had fallen into extreme disrepair over the years, has now been partly restored, but “despite its beauty” it often gets overlooked by tourists. Top Cottage, on the grounds of FDR’s estate in Hyde Park, has also been restored and is open to the public. “Tour both places in the same day and the resonance can run deep.”

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The QE2’s last cruise

The fabled, 40-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2 will sail off into the sunset just next year, said Jay Clarke in The Miami Herald. Its final cruise begins in November 2008, when it will slip out of the harbor in Southampton, England, “bound for Dubai and an indelible role in maritime history.” A series of special farewell sailings have been planned, including a Farewell to America Crossing from New York. The ship will also tour the British Isles, with “a final call to the Clyde (Greenock) in Scotland, where the QE2 was built.” Accommodations for the final crossings range from luxury suites to “low-cost inside rooms.” The QE2 still employs a full-time librarian and offers other facilities “unheard of on modern cruise ships,” such as a dog kennel, a nursery, and garages for cars. After the ocean liner makes its last crossing, it will become a hotel and tourist attraction in Dubai.

Contact: Cunard.com