Summer White House
Roosevelt’s turning Sagamore Hill into a “Summer Capital” was one of his presidential experiments. Presidents always wanted to get away from the disease and sweltering heat of the Washington summers. Congress took off, the Supreme Court took off, why not the president?
In turning Oyster Bay into the “Summer Capital” TR’s first step to make sure he keeps in touch by creating a telegraph office on the 2nd floor of the Oyster Bay Bank. A telephone was installed in the library.
At Sagamore Hill he began the day in the dining room having breakfast with the family. He’d then move to the library, read the latest cables and dispatches and then dictate his replies to a stenographer. He’d sign commissions and postmaster appointments. If all went quickly, he’d be done by lunch giving TR plenty of time to enjoy the summer often on horseback riding with the kids and cousins.
At least once every summer TR would take the kids and one or two of their friends on an overnight where they’d row five to 10 miles east and camp out. TR would make dinner and breakfast and tell ghost stories.
At first the rule was no delegations. There just wasn’t enough room. That soon became a guideline. TR broke the rule of inviting that went from rule to a guideline. Soon Cabinet members and Washington’s political elite began to show up. Eventually the Roosevelt’s presence would irrevocably change Oyster Bay.
On the anniversary of McKinley’s assassination TR suggested Christ Church acknowledge the numerous accomplishments of the former president. Instead, the minister wondered aloud if the assassination of McKinley wasn’t God’s way of bringing the American equivalent of the biblical David to power in Washington.
In this picture of Sagamore Hill, before the North Room was added, you can see how the ivy was left to grow eventually covering the northeast wall.
