U.S. president's New Brunswick getaway marks 60 years as an international park

Campobello Island, N.B., is celebrating the 60th anniversary of a U.S. president's vacation home becoming an international park.

A ceremony at Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Saturday repeatedly highlighted the strong cross border connections between Canada and the United States.

Anne Roosevelt, a park commissioner and granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, said the iconic red cottage also symbolized the unique ties around Maine and New Brunswick’s Passamaquoddy Bay region.

“We are the perfect fishbowl for demonstrating how important, and how really wonderful that relationship is,” said Roosevelt after the ceremony.

Actor Sam Waterston recently narrated a video for the park’s visitor information centre, and attended Saturday's ceremony.

“It was a great honour and a pleasure, and the completion of a circle,” said Waterston, who attended the same school as FDR. “The Roosevelts – and Franklin Delano Roosevelt – have been very large in my imagination and he’s actually the first president of the United States that I ever knew.”

Waterston said it was inspiring to hear the overall message of international cooperation during the event.

“And the sweet reasonableness of it, all these years,” he said.

The Roosevelt family visited Campobello Island several times during the early part of the 20th century, both before and after they moved into the White House. The red cottage is where FDR became seriously ill with polio in 1921, before becoming the 32nd U.S. president in 1933.

The park’s official opening, with international pomp and ceremony, was held on Aug. 20, 1964.

“It’s an ongoing monument to the importance of this relationship,” said park commissioner and U.S. Senator Angus King. “This is such an important symbol of the relationship between our two countries. This is the only jointly owned and managed international/national park in the world.”

Special 60th anniversary events will be held around the island until Aug. 2, including a concert series and public presentations.

The 2,800-acre international park is open daily for free tours until mid-October.

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