Attendance up at Roosevelt site after Burns series

The Associated Press

HYDE PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Attendance increased dramatically at the FDR Presidential Library and Home in Hyde Park, New York, around the time that Ken Burns’ documentary series on the Roosevelts aired on public television.

The FDR National Historic Site sold 10,500 tickets from Sept. 14-30, up 24 percent from the same time period in 2013, according to spokesman Clifford Laube.

Sales at the library and museum’s New Deal Store increased nearly 40 percent during Sept. 14-20, the week the film aired, compared with the same week in 2013, Laube said. The attraction’s website had 65,300 visitors that week, compared to just 8,700 the same week last year.

Burns’ series looked at the lives and legacies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor, and an earlier Roosevelt president, Theodore.

The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace on East 20th Street in Manhattan, which is a National Park Service site, has also observed a slight rise in visitation since the Burns series aired, according to National Park Service spokeswoman Mindy Rambo. “And documentary-related questions are through the roof, so people are coming with purpose,” Rambo said.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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