In 1833 a Delaware and Hudson Railway vice president named James Roosevelt bought a house and four acres on Campobello Island.  The next year he brought his wife Sarah and their baby son, Franklin back to the island to become summer residents.   It was here that Franklin learned to fish, swim, hunt, paddle, sail and even year that he would bring his bride on his honeymoon.  He even built a golf course there.  It was also there in 1921, after he had given sailing lessons to his small sons, and was sitting in the sun that he was seized by chills and mysterious crippling illness.  It would later be diagnosed as infantile paralysis.

     In 1933 Franklin would again return to Campobello Island this time he was the President of the United States.  Roosevelt would spend several days at his 34 room Dutch colonial mansion.  Franklin would only return twice more: once in 1936 and again in 1939.

     In 1946 Campobello erected the first Memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt outside of United States.  It was a slab of red granite placed outside the public library where he had been made the honorary president of.

     Later Canada and the United States agreed to jointly establish a conference center on  20 acres of the  Roosevelt estate.  The center would be devoted to international cooperation and goodwill.  Mrs. Lynden B. Johnson and Mrs. Lester B. Pearson came to dedicate the center and later the Queen Mother, Prime Minister Pearson, and President Johnson would lay the cornerstone for the reception center.