Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
Old Orchard Museum: Home of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and his wife, built "Old Orchard" in 1938. "It had always been the family plan for Ted to inherit Sagamore Hill" recalled President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter-in-law Eleanor Alexander Roosevelt. "By 1937 we had been married twenty-seven years and were tired of living here and there in rented houses."

In her memoir, Day Before Yesterday, Eleanor recalled that at some point during their marriage, they would move into Sagamore Hill, since it was her husband's, Theodore Roosevelt Jr.'s, inheritance. As the years went on, she came to see that Sagamore Hill was too big to maintain or to heat. Sagamore Hill was also the home of her mother-in-law and Theodore Roosevelt's widow, Edith Roosevelt who would continue to live there until she died in 1948.

Therefore, Ted and Eleanor decided to build their own home. The loved the design of the Georgian-style home of their son-in-law, a Baltimore architect, so they asked him to design a similar house for them.

The Sagamore Hill estate apple orchard was the setting for the Roosevelt's new home. As it was finished, the home was richly decorated with mementos of Ted Jr.'s public career as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, governor of the Philippines and Puerto Rico and with items from their many travels and adventures.

Eleanor's attention to detail during the construction process left her very nearly exhausted in early 1938. So Ted Jr. suggested she travel to China as he supervised the final details of the construction job. Traveling with her son, Eleanor never found the relaxation she sought. Instead, she was in a war zone. As storm clouds of World War II rolled over Asia, China was in open conflict before Japanese occupation.

With the all the excitement and cloak-and-dagger adventure of a Casablanca-style movie, Eleanor and her son traveled in a low key and quiet manner. When they left China, they purchased antique Chinese furnishings because they suspected Japanese authorities would confiscate their cash. In returning to Old Orchard, Eleanor furnished the newly completed rooms with many of these artifacts.

Ted Jr. lived at Old Orchard for only three years. In 1941, he reentered active military service several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He became a deputy commander of the 1^st and 4^th Infantry Divisions during World War II. A few weeks after directing the D-Day landing on Utah Beach on the Normandy coast of France, Ted Jr. died of a heart attack on July 11, 1944.

Eleanor Alexander Roosevelt continued to live at Old Orchard until her death in 1960. Later the Theodore Roosevelt Association purchased the house and presented it to the American people as part of the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

Old Orchard has since renovated for use as park administrative offices and a Theodore Roosevelt museum. Exhibits devoted to President Theodore Roosevelt's public career are located in what were bookcases of the library. Exhibits on family life at Sagamore Hill and its history as a "Summer White House," and Edith Kermit Roosevelt are in the former living room. The auditorium was the dinning room. A small study used later as a child's playroom, has exhibits on Theodore Roosevelt's six children: Alice, Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin.

The second floor had six spacious bedrooms, three on either side of the central hallway. Today, those rooms are the administrative offices of the site and have no exhibits.

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Last Updated:Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 10:05:05 Eastern Standard Time
http://www.nps.gov/archive/sahi/oom.htm
Editor: Michael Shaver