perhaps how it translated into some of the things he did as president of the united states. he made arrangements while he was president to have this given to the national park service eventually. it was his hope and dream that people would come here and learn about him as a person and as president of the united states. next a visit to franklin roosevelt's top cottage designed by the 32nd president and located about 3 miles from the family's springwood estate in hyde park. during his presidency, fdr received a number of guests at top cottage, including britain's king george the vi and queen elizabeth. . . >> well, i think fdr used this place as a place to bring these world leaders up but to have them let their guards down and really focus on some of the major issues that they're here to talk about. springwood is really the same way. when you walked into these buildings didn't come in as king or queen, prime minister, first lady, president, whatever your title was, you came in as a friend. and coming into somebody's home as a friend is much different than walking into their place of business as a colleague. so going into the white house with fdr and talking about major world events would be much different than coming up to this very secluded porch where, you know, there were no bank of photographers waiting to take a picture of the handshake. it was a place there that he could be open with his guests. and showing him sitting in his wheelchair laid it all out there. you know, he's there showing off the fact that i'm not hiding anything from you and i think his guests received that in such a twha they were willi-- way th able to open up and not hide anything from him. and i think that the way they used this place facilitated some wonderful conversation and they were able to delve into some of the major issues and come up with some really incredible solutions that may not have been possible at the white house or more formal places. this building was constructed in 1938. fdr brings an architect to the site by the name of henry tooms from the state of georgia who was no stranger to fdr. then had worked together on several projects in the past including the hyde park town library, stone cottage at val kill, as well as a couple of the buildings down in warm springs in georgia. so he knew what fdr wanted in a building, but he was not brought up here to design this building himself. fdr had every intention of doing that. he was going to design the building, tooms was going to be the guy standing behind him making sure that everything was going to work. but he designed it not only to meet his personal interests in the dutch influence of this building but also his physical needs. he was in a wheelchair and so he designs this in such a way that he can use this place that he doesn't need assistance. there was a ramp on to the porch which he would have been helped up on but once he got into the building, he would enter through a sliding door which for somebody in a wheelchair was important because sliding doors it didn't matter what side your on, you slid the door open. most modern sliding doors have that track at the bottom. this particular door, that track was recessed down into the floor so it created one small bump. when you entered into the building, the hallways were a little wider, it was one flat surface all the way through, all hardwo hardwood floor, no thresholds or sills between the doors. no obstacles in the way. even the kitchen was one of those double swung doors. so he got to use this building more than he could use springwood himself. so he got to be the host up here. he zbot got to host his guests he took a lot of pride in. he loved to show this place off. he loved to be able to serve his guests. pictures of him up here always smiling, enjoying himself. he had a toaster where he would set up and make his guests tea and toast, serve that toast to his guests. he buttered it himself with the flourish of his wrist and by all accounts it was the best toast that anybody had ever had. but by afternoons he probably would have offered you a martini and you would have been very smart to say no thank you, mr. president, because by all accounts those martinis were dreadful, mixed with entirely too much vermouth, which is how he loved them. as he put it, it was a place to escape the mob, the throngs of people that tried to visit springwood while he was president. it was a much different period back then where the public would often come to the president's house trying to meet, greet, ask questions, voice opinions, and this was a place that was removed far enough away from springwood that he could get away from all of the activity going on down below. we have a record number of visits of top cottage by fdr of 95. those are the wounds ones we ca document through documents, diary entries and various other sources. were there others that were not documented? probably. some of the guests included madam shanghai czech of china, crown pins marta of norway, queen willa mina and julianna of the netherlands, king george the vi and queen elizabeth. winston churchill was on this forth four different times. avril harryman among others. many times when they arrived here, they're in need of help or assistance and i think they were willing to sit in a place probably far removed from their comfort zone. and i think it may have been quite refreshing for them to get away from everything happening below as well. and to see fdr for the man that he really was rather than the fact that he was the president of the united states. probably the one most people are familiar with is the infamous hot dog picnic, the weekend that the king and queen of england arrived here in hyde park. the visit was a very historic visit as it was the first time that a seated british monarch had been to the united states. and that visit was capped off with a picnic on the porch here at top cottage that hot dog picnic. and when this place opened up to the public in 2001, the queen mum was still alive and sent some remarks to the read at the opening. and it really had nothing to do with the hot dogs or top cottage as a building, but she talked about fdr's driving. and the roads we mentioned earlier, these bumpy roads, she said i was holding on for dedea. she said i thought for sure ways going to die. and in her own words she said fdr drove like a bat out of hell. they arrived up here for that picnic and she quickly exited the car. it's a very steep last section and was probably happy to make it up here in one piece. but she exited the car, they had their picnic and came time to leave at the end of the day and fdr said why don't you get back in the car and we'll go back down the hill. and she said, not with you. apparently having risked her life once that day wasn't prepared to go and do it a second time, so she rode down the hill with one of fdr's secret service detail and i'm sure fdr had a wonderful story to tell from that and probably embellished it over the years as the day the queen would not ride with him. but while they were up here the roosevelts treated the royals to a picnic. we always hear about the hot dogs that were menu was much more vast than that. they had virginia ham, smoked turkey, hot sausages, hot dogs, mixed green salad, strawberry short cake for dessert, but it was the hot dogs that really stole the show. and they were swift premium hot dogs and i don't believe the queen had ever seen a hot dog before because she asked fdr what they were. fdr said, it's a hot dog. she said, how would i eat such a thing? he says, you take one in your hand, put it in your mouth, and you push and you crew. chew. which was a very descriptive way as to teach somebody how to eat a hot dog, but she did not have one. the king went back and enjoyed his and actually went back for seconds, but the queen did not have one. you know, this visit, by many in the press, was deemed a social visit. but the visit was much more important than that. you know, you're looking at the middle of june of 1939. this was two and a half months before september 1st and the invasion of poland, the beginning of world war ii and they were sent over by nevil neville chamberlain. this was a very important visit and i think lends itself to some of the earliest involvement of the united states into the war effort at that time. winston churchill was here four different times but on june 20th of 1942 was probably the most important visit. we know that earlier in the day, that he and fdr and harry hopkins are down in fdr's study at springwood and they're talking about tube alloys. now, tube alloys was the british atomic program, the code name for that. the research was taking place in london, which was rather difficult at the time with the constant bombarding of the city, so they weren't making the progress that they were hoping to, and word was coming down that the germans were rather close to developing an atomic weapon. churchill is asking fdr to to bring the program and the scientists over to the united states, and fdr agrees to that. within two months time, tube alloys is gone. and the manhattan project was born out of that. we know they're discussing this down at springwood from churchill's memoirs, and through margaret daisy's diary entries of that day, she sets the mood up here at top cottage. while she doesn't necessarily spell out the words that were said, she talks about the visit, which occurred at about 4:00 that afternoon at top cottage, and she said the p and mr. c seemed very distracted, like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. we all waited for them to speak. we may never know the exact words that were said up here, but if there was any place to have a conversation of that magnitude, this was the place to do it. the press was not allowed up here. there was no telephone. there was no outside communication whatsoever. this was a place to keep a secret. this was a place where, you know, dealing with the stresses of the presidency and everything that's going on o in washington, you know, the only president, to this date, who's really gone through two major events, the great depression and world war ii, and i think the stresses of the presidency, you know, were pretty hard on