Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
The Inside View
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
The Inside View
 Referred
to by the Roosevelt family as the hall, or occasionally front or main hall, this space
served as a sitting room, an entrance hall and passageway to the first floor rooms and
main staircase (beyond the right edge of the photo). The sitting room function, shared
with the library, was abandoned with the opening of the north room (far center in photo)
in 1905. One author commented that: "The dark entrance hall of Sagamore Hill...
was...not arranged for comfort" and seemed to inexorably draw a visitor to one of the
several rooms that opened from it. Along the main staircase, a back hallway led to the
service wing of the house.Originally, the north end of the hall opened onto the porch at the location of the grandfather clock (at the left). When the north room was built in 1905, the hall was extended to connect with the new room. Doors to the right and left in the new section of the hall led to the dining room and the porch/piazza.
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| This 1904 photograph shows the west side of the hall, almost looking back to the front door. The only seats visible are a cushioned, straight-backed settee and one low-backed armchair, which suggests that by this date the sitting room function had already been -pretty much abandoned. The animal heads in 1904 were of American origin; in the 1918 photograph above, the visible trophies were from the 1910 African expedition: the elephant's tusk chimes and elephant's foot gong. Oriental rugs present in 1904 were present through 1948. By the time of Mrs. Roosevelt's death in 1948, much of the clutter was gone, though several objects were still there from as far back as 1904. |  |
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The room to the right of the entry hall is the library or study. It was the President's office from 1902 to 1908, when Sagamore Hill was the Summer White House. Traditionally, in pre-air conditioner days, the President, Congress and Supreme Court always left Washington from April to October in order to avoid the oppressive summer heat. As the United States became a world power, the business of the country could be carried on where ever a telephone could be found. Roosevelt had a candlestick-style phone on his desk in the study. Prior to that time, phone messages had to be bicycled out three miles from Snouder's Drug Store in Oyster Bay. |
The man certainly did read. Roosevelt was an indefatigable reader in three languages: English, French and German. He authored 35 to 38 books (depending on how you count them) on a wide variety of subjects, from outdoor adventure to American history. On his African safari, he took 60 books in to the bush with him. In all there are about 6000 books throughout the house.
Theodore Roosevelt was not only a world-renowned hunter, but a widely-respected natural scientist, hunting for museums at a time when animals could only be studied out of their natural habitats by examination of their bones and hides. Roosevelt went on a Smithsonian Institution sponsored safari to Africa in 1909-10 with a staff of 200 bearers, scientists, artists and photographers, bringing back nearly 15,000 study and exhibit specimens. But Roosevelt kept fewer than 12 trophies. Present in the room are a zebra skin, two mountain lions, a big-horned sheep, a mountain goat and a wild peccary. The stuffed badger underneath a the rocking chair represents Archie's pet badger Josiah who was banished to the Bronx Zoo after he developed the habit of "hissing like a teakettle" and biting guests on the ankle.
 Many items reflect TR's
personality. Sculptures on the bookcase portray his love of nature, animals and cowboy
life. Near the door, Frederick Remington's bronze: "Paleolithic Man" is quite
unusual and departed from his usual works on western subjects. Paintings and prints over
the bookcase shows TR's role models, led by his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in the oil
painting in the center. Also shown are Abraham Lincoln, a friend of Roosevelt's father;
General U.S. Grant, who was a constituent for State Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt in the
early 1880's; Chief Justice John Marshall; Dutch patriots William and Maurice of Orange,
Sir Thomas Moore and his rival William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Oliver
Cromwell. Under the portrait of Cromwell is his autograph signature. (TR had written a
biography of Cromwell) . |
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Library is that in 1905 a Nobel Peace Prize was won there. In that year, Theodore Roosevelt, a neutral party with a great interest in having stability in the Pacific region, brought representatives of the Japanese and Russian governments to Sagamore Hill to negotiate an end to the bloody and expensive Russo-Japanese War. Success won TR the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an American. The war ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth, which was signed in New Hampshire, but the agreements were sealed here at Sagamore Hill.
 No room in Sagamore Hill has been
more frequently and fully described than what the family called the North Room. Its rich
Philippine camagon woodwork and high ceiling provided an impressive setting for
Roosevelt's biggest hunting trophies. Built in the spring of 1905, the room was designed
in an eclectic style, combining classical columns with a medieval vaulted ceiling and
massive fireplace. The dramatic entrance, a platform four steps higher than the sunken
floor, enhanced the baronial hall aspect of the room and made it a natural setting for the
reception of visitors. But in spite of its inherently dramatic design, the North Room
quickly became a favorite family room, where parents and now grown and half-grown children
could read in the quiet of the afternoon, play the piano or the Victrola, or just sit and
talk by the fire. |
As Roosevelt's wife, Edith wrote to her sister Emily just after the room was completed, "it opens out the whole house in a curious way." To celebrate its completion in June 1905, the children and their friends and cousins were allowed to have a fancy dress party in the new room, the beginning of a tradition that continued for several years.
| One of the first of a long line of distinguished visitors received in the north room was Baron Komura, senior Japanese representative in the talks arranged by President Roosevelt, to bring an end to the Russo-Japanese War. As a memento of his visit, an ancient samurai sword, a gift from the Emperor of Japan graces the room, as do many other exotic objects given to or collected by the Roosevelt's during presidential and post-presidential years. Along with the animal heads, horns, tusks, and skins, Roosevelt delighted in showing visitors of all ages and nations these souvenirs of travel, diplomacy, and the hunt. It was inevitable that it would be viewed as "trophy room." |
The North Room is associated also with a number of important family occasions, particularly daughter Ethel's wedding in 1913 to Dr. Richard Derby. For the wedding luncheon the North Room, the dining room, and piazza were filled with guests. After 1909, the family Christmas tree was set up in this room, and it was here that the younger Roosevelt children were often read to by their mother as they lay on the lion skin in front of the fire. On January 8, 1919, Edith Roosevelt read prayers in the north room beside her husband's coffin, before it was taken to the church in Oyster Bay and its final resting place in Youngs Cemetery.
Mrs. Roosevelt continued to use the north room as a sitting and reception room for notable visitors like King Albert of Belgium (1919). Groups of Boy Scouts, college students, and others came to pay their respects and gaze at the room, which so impressively reflected his achievements and his interests. But as a pragmatic matter, Mrs. Roosevelt installed a door into the room as to spare the trouble and expense of trying to heat it. For Roosevelt grandchildren, the room was off limits and opened only occasionally as a rare treat.
(Edited from: Historic Furnishings Report: Volume 1, Historic Data; Sagamore Hill National Historic Site by David H. Wallace. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Harpers Ferry Center-Division of Historic Furnishings, National Park Service, 1989.)
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Last Updated:Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 10:05:04 Eastern Standard Time
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Editor: Michael Shaver