Sagamore Hill: The Heart of Roosevelt's Home Life

A House for a Growing Family

Roosevelt purchased the Sagamore Hill property in 1880, when he and his first wife, Alice Lee, were planning a home together. By the time the house was completed in 1885, he was recently widowed and still grieving the death of Alice, who had died in February 1884 along with Roosevelt's mother. The architect designed the house to be roomy and comfortable rather than ostentatious—a family home for a man who believed in the strenuous life but also in the centrality of domestic bonds. Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, whom he married in 1886, made Sagamore Hill the center of their family life.

The house accommodated a large and growing family. Roosevelt and Edith had five children together, and Roosevelt had one daughter from his marriage to Alice Lee. Six children meant that Sagamore Hill was constantly alive with activity, noise, and the boisterous energy that reflected Roosevelt's own vigorous personality. Visitors remarked on the chaos: children running through halls, animals (Roosevelt kept a menagerie of pets), conversations erupting on multiple topics at once. Edith, who was intelligent, well-read, and patient, managed this household with grace and kept Roosevelt anchored in family responsibilities even as his political ambitions grew.

The house's design reflected its function as a family home. Bedrooms were numerous and comfortable. The rooms were arranged for family gathering rather than formal entertainment. There were spaces for children's play and education. Roosevelt's study was a serious working space where he engaged in his prolific writing, but it was also accessible to family members. The North Room, which served as Roosevelt's library and trophy room, contained his animal collections and thousands of books—a tangible representation of his twin passions for nature and literature.

Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt's home at Oyster Bay, New York, seen from the lawn

Sagamore Hill, the rambling home Theodore Roosevelt built at Oyster Bay, New York, in 1884-85, seen from the sloping lawn. (Library of Congress)

The piazza at Sagamore Hill with rocking chairs and an animal-skin rug, overlooking Oyster Bay

The broad piazza at Sagamore Hill overlooking Oyster Bay, where the Roosevelts gathered on summer evenings and the President received guests during the Summer White House seasons. (Library of Congress)

The Summer White House and the Work of the Presidency

After Roosevelt became president in 1901, Sagamore Hill became the "Summer White House." Presidents in that era did not remain in Washington year-round; Roosevelt spent much of late spring and summer at Sagamore Hill, conducting presidential business from home. Cabinet members would travel to Oyster Bay for meetings. Diplomatic negotiations occurred in Sagamore Hill's rooms. Important decisions about trust-busting, conservation, and foreign policy were made in Roosevelt's study overlooking the bay.

This arrangement was not unusual for the era—presidents commonly retreated from Washington's heat and humidity during the summer months. But the extent to which Roosevelt used Sagamore Hill as a working presidential residence was notable. He did not merely vacation there; he actively governed from Oyster Bay. The house became a second capital, and the community of Oyster Bay became accustomed to the presence of Secret Service agents, visiting cabinet members, and journalists following the president's activities.

Journalists had a peculiar relationship with Sagamore Hill. Roosevelt was unusually accessible to the press compared to most presidents. He would take reporters on his famous walks, talking volubly about his views and activities. He granted interviews and press conferences. The result was that much of what America learned about Roosevelt came from dispatches filed from Sagamore Hill—accounts of his energetic morning rides, his reading habits, his conversations with visiting statesmen. The house became a window into Roosevelt's personality and work style for the American public.

The North Room: Books, Trophies, and a Man's Inner Life

The North Room at Sagamore Hill is perhaps the most revealing space in the house. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases line the walls, filled with thousands of volumes representing Roosevelt's prodigious reading in history, biography, literature, politics, and nature. Roosevelt was a voracious reader who consumed multiple books a day even when serving as president. The library reflects the breadth of his intellectual interests—everything from ancient Roman history to contemporary political theory.

Alongside the books are the animal specimens and trophies from Roosevelt's hunting expeditions. Mounted heads of moose, elk, buffalo, and African game animals are displayed throughout the room. Glass cases contain taxidermied birds and smaller animals. The collection represents decades of hunting—Roosevelt's participation in the "strenuous life" of the outdoor West, his hunting trips to Africa and South America, his belief that hunting was both a form of manly recreation and a way of studying animal behavior and natural history.

Modern visitors to the North Room often find the animal trophies disturbing. They represent a now-outdated approach to hunting and wildlife that Roosevelt himself would eventually help reform through conservation policy. But the room accurately reflects Roosevelt's character: a man of intellectual breadth and serious learning alongside a man who saw hunting as essential to human vitality and natural understanding. The North Room is not a comfortable room for someone with contemporary sensibilities about animal welfare, but it is an honest representation of a complex man.

The North Room at Sagamore Hill, filled with hunting trophies, elephant tusks and mounted animal heads

The North Room at Sagamore Hill, added in 1905, where Roosevelt kept hunting trophies, elephant tusks, books and mementos of his life amid dark wood paneling. (Library of Congress)

The Roosevelt family portrait taken at Sagamore Hill in 1903

The Roosevelt family at Sagamore Hill in 1903: Theodore and Edith with their children Alice, Ted Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archie and Quentin. (Harvard College Library)

Family Life and the Shape of Roosevelt's Character

Sagamore Hill was where Roosevelt was most fully himself—not the public figure, not the president, but the man. He was a devoted husband to Edith, a man who valued her intelligence and her partnership. He was an engaged father who took his children's education and character seriously. He played boisterously with his children, took them on adventures, but also expected obedience and discipline. The household was lively, affectionate, and also ruled by clear principles about duty and responsibility.

Roosevelt's children thrived in the Sagamore Hill environment. They grew up comfortable but not spoiled, with expectations that they would contribute to household and community life. Several of his children inherited his energy and engagement with public affairs. His eldest son, Theodore Jr., became a distinguished soldier and statesman. His daughter Alice became one of the most famous women in America, known for her irreverent wit and her refusal to conform to conventional expectations of women's behavior.

The letters Roosevelt wrote from Sagamore Hill reveal the depth of his attachment to his family. He wrote to his children when away on hunting or political trips, expressing affection and interest in their activities. He shared his intellectual enthusiasms with them, recommending books and discussing ideas. He created family traditions and rituals that bound them together. For all his public prominence and energy, Roosevelt's core identity was as a family man, and Sagamore Hill was where that identity was most fully expressed.

Death and Legacy: Roosevelt's Final Home

Roosevelt died at Sagamore Hill on January 6, 1919, at age 60. He had spent his final years there, working on his writings, engaging in politics, and gradually declining in health. Edith continued to live at Sagamore Hill until her death in 1948, maintaining the house as a repository of Roosevelt's life and memory. In 1963, Sagamore Hill became a National Historic Site, and today it remains one of the most visited presidential homes in the country.

The preservation of Sagamore Hill is meticulous and moving. The house has been restored to approximate its appearance during Roosevelt's lifetime. His study remains much as he left it. The North Room's books and trophies are preserved. Photographs and furnishings evoke the daily life of the Roosevelt family. Visitors can walk through the rooms Roosevelt walked through, sit in the spaces where he worked and thought, and gain insight into the private life of a public figure.

Sagamore Hill matters not because it is grand or exceptional in its architecture (it is not), but because it is genuine. It is the home where Roosevelt lived his actual life, where he balanced public ambition with family devotion, where his intellectual and physical energy found expression. The house reveals Roosevelt as he was: brilliant, energetic, loving, flawed, and always, always fully alive.

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Primary Sources at the TR Center

Explore Roosevelt's life at Sagamore Hill through letters and documents at the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library.

Plan your visit to this remarkable presidential home and learn more at the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

From the Archives

Explore original photographs, documents, and illustrations related to this topic in the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library.

Recommended Reading

  • Sagamore Hill: The Home of Theodore Roosevelt by Susan Bleyer
  • The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill by Hermann Hagedorn (1954)