Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the birthplace of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. US 9 passes through the town near the Hudson River. Hyde Park is the home of the famous Culinary Institute of America (CIA), a residential college devoted to cooking and baking.

Settlement of the region officially began around 1742, but may have begun as early as 1710. The name of the area was changed to "Hyde Park" around 1810. Previously, it was part of the Fauconnier Patent and was named "Stoutenburgh," after an early settler. Part of the town was from the Great Nine Partners Patent of 1697.

Dr. John Bard had called his estate "Hyde Park" in honor of Edward Hyde, who was Lord Cornbury and Governor of New York. In 1804 a tavern keeper whose business was slow named the tavern "Hyde Park Inn," much to the annoyance of Dr. Bard. Miller, the tavern keeper, applied for a post office to be located at his Inn, which was nothing unusual. The request was granted as the "Hyde Park Post office." Because the Post Office's name was "Hyde Park", and thus resident's mailing address was "Hyde Park", the area slowly started to be commonly called "Hyde Park". Finally, this caused a change of the settlement's name from Stoutenburgh to Hyde Park officially in 1812. Hyde Park was included in the Town of Clinton until 1821, when the town of Hyde Park was formed.