Sagamore Hill was the home of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, from 1885 until his death in 1919. It is located in the Incorporated Village of Cove Neck, New York, near Oyster Bay on the north shore of Long Island, 25 miles (40Â km) east of Manhattan. It is now the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, which includes the Theodore Roosevelt Museum in a later building on the grounds.
History
Although a native of New York City, Theodore Roosevelt spent many summers of his youth on extended vacations with his family in the Oyster Bay area. In 1880, by then a young adult of 22, Roosevelt purchased 155 acres (63Â ha) of land for $30,000 (equal to about $700,000 today) on Cove Neck, a small peninsula roughly 2 miles (3.2Â km) northeast of the village of Oyster Bay. In 1881, his uncle James A. Roosevelt had designed his estate home several hundred feet west of the Sagamore Hill property. In 1884 Theodore Roosevelt hired the New York architectural firm Lamb & Rich to design a shingle-style, Queen Anne home for the property. The twenty-two room home was completed in 1886 for $16,975 (equal to $445,562 today), and Roosevelt moved into the house in 1887. Roosevelt originally planned to name the house "Leeholm" after his wife Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. However, she died in 1884 and Roosevelt remarried in 1886, so he decided to change the name to "Sagamore Hill". Sagamore is the Algonquin word for chieftain, the head of the tribe. In 1905 Roosevelt decided to expand the house, adding the largest room, called the "North Room" (40 by 30 feet (12.2 by 9.1Â m)), for $19,000 (equal to $498,715 today). The home now has twenty-three rooms.
The house and its surrounding farmland became the primary residence of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt for the rest of their lives. Sagamore Hill took on its greatest importance when it became known as the "Summer White House" during the seven summers (1902â€"1908) Roosevelt spent there as President. Roosevelt died at Sagamore Hill in January 1919.
On July 25, 1962, Congress established Sagamore Hill National Historic Site to preserve the house as a unit of the National Park Service. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, Sagamore Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The home is normally open to the public by guided tour, but is closed for renovation until 2015. Almost all the furnishings are original. Also on the site is the Theodore Roosevelt Museum, which chronicles the life and career of the President. The museum is housed in the 1938 house called "Old Orchard", the former residence of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and his family.
Visiting
On December 5, 2011, the house closed for a three year, $6.2 million renovation. The visitors center, museum, and adjoining grounds remain open, and tours of the grounds are still conducted. The grounds are open for visitation seven days a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The visitors' center and museum are open Wednesday through Sunday and closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
According to the latest National Park Service entry on their Sagamore Hill National Historic Site website, the renovated house is scheduled to reopen on July 13, 2015.
References
External links
- Media related to Sagamore Hill at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. NY-6051, "Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Nassau County, NY", 35 photos, 13 measured drawings, 5 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
- HABS No. NY-6051-A, "Sagamore Hill, Grey Cottage", 1 photo, 1 photo caption page
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