As we drove past New York City, we veered onto Long Island to the town of Oyster Bay to visit Theodore Roosevelt’s summer home, Sagamore Hill.
CASH OR CREDIT
Asking tentatively if they took credit cards, the ranger assured me they did.
I explained to him that I tried to do this at Saratoga Battlefield, but they only take cash.
Incredulously he exclaimed: They didn’t? Well, they are stuck in the 18th century!
OYSTER BAY: TOWN, HAMLET, HARBOR, BAY, AND SOUND
Although there is the hamlet of Oyster Bay within the town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, Sagamore Hill is actually a bit further ahead on Cove Neck, a small peninsula jutting off Long Island into the waters that feed the nearby Atlantic Ocean.
Specifically, the peninsula is bordered by Oyster Bay Harbor to the west, and Cold Spring Habor to the east.
The northern water soon becomes Oyster Sound, which feeds into Oyster Bay, which in turn become Long Island Sound, across from which is Connecticut, before opening to the Atlantic Ocean.
OYSTER BAY – COLD SPRING HARBOR HISTORY
Upon settlement of New York, first as a Dutch Colony and later as a British Colony, the area waterways drove the maritime commerce of boat building beginning in the 17th century, adding whaling in the 19th century.
With the success of iron clads in the Civil War, and steam power in the 19th century, wooden ships became relics of the past.
The beauty of the area turned the economy to summer vacation resorts.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S BOYHOOD VACATION HOME
Born in New York City in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt suffered from childhood asthma.
Meanwhile, his grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt purchased a summer home in the pristine Oyster Bay located near bustling New York City.
As a young boy, Theodore Roosevelt’s (TR) father took him to his grandfather’s vacation home so he could experience fresh air in the beautiful outdoors.
Homeschooled during these years, fresh air and exercise contributed to Roosevelt’s improved health.
According to the tour book, Theodore and his three siblings enjoyed: riding and hiking in the woods, swimming and rowing at the beaches, shooting and picnicking. They wrote and recited poetry and dramas, read aloud to each other, and put on theatrical performances for their parents.
Bully! That sounds like us!
TR’S BOYHOOD SUMMER HOME: TRANQUILITY
By the age of 16, in 1874, TR’s father obtained their own vacation home they named Tranquility.
TR’s sister wrote: The Happy Land of Woods and Waters…an enchanted spot…every special delight…connected with Oyster Bay.
Entering Harvard College in 1876, TR wrote that he was: leading the most thoroughly out of door life. Riding and walking every day and rowing in my little boat almost as often…
Devastated when his father passed away in 1878, TR recalled his father’s advice: take care of your morals first, your health next, and finally your studies.
While attending college he printed as a broadside his Notes on Some of the Birds of Oyster Bay, Long Island, March 1879.
This long-loved vacation home became his honeymoon spot after he married Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880.
BUILDING A QUEEN ANNE NEAR OYSTER BAY
Meanwhile various Roosevelt relatives purchased land on Cove Neck near Oyster Bay: TR’s cousin purchased 4 acres while his uncle purchased 38 acres.
Bully! TR bought land, too!
Purchasing a total of 155 acres in the early 1880s, TR sold 32 acres to one of his aunts and 28 acres to his sister, Anna.
Left with 95 acres, one third of that included woodland and beachfront.
Hiring an architect to design a shingle-style Queen Anne house at the top of a bluff overlooking the waterways, TR planned to name the home after his wife’s family, Leeholm.
Before signing the construction contract, Alice suddenly passed away two days after giving birth to their first child, Alice.
Distraught, TR signed the construction contract so his daughter would have a home, then spent much of his time at his Dakota ranch in between visits to Oyster Bay.
Meanwhile his sister, Anna, cared for baby Alice while overseeing the construction of the new house.
QUEEN ANNE CONSTRUCTION
Keeping to the original Queen Anne style for the house, elements incorporated include: asymmetry, cantilevered elements, multiple gables, wrap-around porch, differing wall textures, classical columns, bay windows, interesting chimneys, and balustrades.
Though the surrounding homes were summer vacation homes, this home was a year-round retreat from the hectic life in nearby New York City.
In fact, it is the only house TR ever owned.
Later TR wrote: The house was built thirty four years ago; my means were strictly limited, and I didn’t know enough to be sure what I wished in outside matters. But I had perfectly definite views what I wished in inside matters, what I desired to live in and with. I arranged all this, so as to get what I desired in so far as my money permitted; and then Rich (the architect) put on the outside cover with but little help from me. I wished a big piazza, very broad at the N.W. corner where we could sit in rocking chairs and look at the sunset; a library with a shallow bay window opening south; the parlor a drawing room occupying all the western end of the lower floor; as broad a hall as our space would permit; big fireplaces for logs; on the top floor the gun room occupying the western end so that north and west it looks over the sound and bay. I had to live inside and not outside the house; and while I should have liked to ‘express’ myself in both, as I had to choose I chose the former.
LIFE IN SAGAMORE HILL
Reconnecting to a childhood friend, Edith Kermit Carow, TR married her in 1886.
After a European honeymoon they resided in the newly named home of Sagamore Hill.
Five children were born to TR and Edith, three of whom were born at Sagamore Hill: Theodore Jr., Kermit, and Ethel. Archibald and Quentin were born in Washington, D.C.
SUMMER WHITE HOUSE
After TR became president: the necessity of receiving diplomats and hosting political functions prompted the construction of the North Room, a sizeable porch-less extension to the north of the piazza. This addition is marked by a large golden Presidential eagle that proudly identifies the house’s new status as the “Summer White House”. –Must Do Things
Not only was Sagamore Hill the center of day-to-day administration of the nation’s affairs in summer from 1902 to 1909, but it witnessed dramatic national and international events. On one August day in 1905 Roosevelt separately met envoys of warring Russia and Japan in the Sagamore Hill library and then brought them face-to-face. There they inaugurated the conference resulting in the September 5, 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire) that ended the conflict and earned TR the Nobel peace prize.
The doings of the Roosevelts and their kin filled reams of copy filed by correspondents who kept watch at this Summer White House. As an ardent advocate of what he called “the strenuous life,” the President frequently could be seen joining the children in their games and taking them for a hike or swim, chopping wood, riding horseback, or striding across the fields and through the woods he loved. Occasionally there would be a mournful procession of children, accompanied by President and Mrs. Roosevelt, to the small animal cemetery to bury a family pet. –National Park Service
Check this video of TR at Sagamore Hill in the summer of 1912.
TOURING THE HOUSE, SET DURING HIS PRESIDENCY
The inside of the house looked like a mix of hunting lodge and gentility.
The North Room displayed books galore, animal skins on the floors (with heads attached) and more animal heads mounted on the walls from his hunting expeditions in the Dakotas and Africa.
We saw a golden Presidential eagle on the wall.
It was full of trophies from hunting and gifted treasures from the Orient.
Memories from the Spanish-American War included a life-sized painting of TR in his Rough Rider uniform, while his Rough Rider hat and sword were displayed on an animal head.
Seeing a telephone sat on his desk, we learned that he didn’t use it.
If the president needed to receive an important message, people quickly learned it was best to send it to a local general store so the message could be biked to Sagamore Hill.
After the presidency, Roosevelt made sure that one phone remained in the house for his chatty teenage daughter.
The library contained a huge collection of books, many of which the Roosevelts read to their children.
Edith’s drawing room was more sedate with some florals, and a touch of a bear skin rug with head attached, on the floor.
In the dining room, we saw where the children conversed intellectually with important guests, which Ted Jr. proclaimed as: the best education I ever had.
Upstairs we saw all the bedrooms for family and guests, and the new-fangled bathrooms which were primarily for the kids.
The adults weren’t too sure about all that new-fangled plumbing moving all of that, ahem, out of the house.
They thought it was better to deal with “life” the old way.
Eventually Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed the Sprinkle Room (shower) where he sprayed his fully-clothed children with water!
TR AND CHILDREN OFTEN PLAYED
Despite TR’s childlike exuberance, the ranger explained the rest of the story.
Due to TR’s asthma in childhood, his parents isolated him from life.
As a father of his children, he was making up for lost time.
OLD ORCHARD: THEODORE ROOSEVELT JR HOME
After a walk down to Clear Spring Harbor, we stopped by Old Orchard while returning back to Sagamore Hill.
Built in 1938, Old Orchard was the home of Theodore Jr and his wife, after he purchased 4 acres from his mother.
Their son-in-law, a Baltimore architect, designed this Georgian style home for them.
Earlier in the day the park ranger liked that I asked about Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., portrayed by Henry Fonda in the movie, The Longest Day.
That movie shows him storming the beaches of Normandy in WWII. He died a month later from a heart attack.
The ranger then told us about his brother, Archibald, who was wounded in the knee in WWI and declared 100% disabled.
When WWII began, he jumped through hoops to reenlist again, and was wounded again in the same knee.
He is the only soldier declared 100% disabled in the same knee in two different wars.
We only had a few more minutes before closing, so we squeezed in a peak at the Rough Rider display, since Theodore Roosevelt recruited and trained the Rough Riders in our hometown of San Antonio!
I carefully took note of his uniform for possible Becoming History presentation research! Bully!
Before our house tour, I had purchased a blue polka dot bandana, a reproduction from those that the Rough Riders wore.
My son might wear it for a future Becoming History presentation.
Hopefully we can return because it looked like we missed a lot of great stuff!
PRESERVATION
After Edith’s passing in 1948, Archibald and Edith turned their childhood home into a museum, honoring their father.
Everything in the house is period accurate, and original to the Roosevelts.
