The Roosevelts and Eastport

The Roosevelts and Eastport. . , Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Campobello Island home can be seen from Eastport. After FDR contracted polio while at Campobello in 1921, local fisherman took him across the bay to Eastport. Using a ruse to fool reporters, they spirited FDR onto a waiting railroad car at the Maine Central Railroad Station on Sea Street. The reporters never realized a seated FDR was paralyzed as he gave his famous grin and waved., Eleanor Roosevelt regularly shopped in Eastport, the transportation and mercantile hub of the entire bay. In 1934 FDR was escorted into the bay by the cruiser Indianapolis, making one of the few trips to the area after contracting polio. Mrs. Roosevelt continued visiting Campobello and Eastport yearly until the 1960s and she remained a well-liked, familiar person to Eastporters., Photos (top to bottom): , President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 looking over a model of the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project in Eastport. Photograph courtesy of “The Quoddy Tides”, Island City drawing to show how Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project (1936) was to utilize the 28-foot tides to generate electricity. Photograph courtesy of “The Quoddy Tides”, Photograph taken aboard Franklin D. Roosevelt's boat Amerjack in 1933 on his first return to Passamaquoddy Bay since his contracting polio. Also aboard are Eleanor and sons James, Franklin, Jr. and John. Photograph courtesy of “Her Life in Pictures” by Richard Harrity and Ralph Martea., Eleanor Roosevelt visiting the Riviera Sardine Packing Corporation in 1947. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of John "Terry” Holt.