Tranquility
In 1835 John T. Irving, a writer and brother of Washington Irving, purchased property in Oyster Bay from Jacob and Zipporah Colwell. Sometime after 1837 Gabriel Irving, a nephew of Washington Irving, used the land to build a summer vacation home called Tranquility a mile form the center of town.
Periodically Washington Irving would visit Oyster Bay to see his nephew and stay at Tranquility. In addition to being an author, President John Tyler named Washington Irving Ambassador to Spain. While the term Knickerbocker often refers to the style of pants worn by the Dutch in the 1600s; Washington Irving, under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, wrote a hoax entitled, “The History of New York from the Beginning of the World until the End of the Dutch Dynasty. " In it he used the term Knickerbocker to identify any New Yorker who could trace their ancestry to the original Dutch settlers.
Originally the term was limited to the Manhattan elite, but today it covers all New Yorkers. The Knicks are formally named the Knickerbockers. It was also used to name a magazine, beer and baseball team. At the Polo Grounds from 1955 to 1957 there was a huge Knickerbocker Beer sign in dead center field.
Some mistakenly believe the name came from the New York Knickerbocker Club at 2 East 62nd Street, established in 1871. The club is one of the world’s most elite gentleman’s club. However, the club isn't the origin of the Knickerbockers it was instead named in the honor of Irving’s pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker.
Irving was so good at creating history he just couldn’t help himself. In his 1828 book “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus” he wrote Columbus sailed west to prove the Earth wasn’t flat. Irving actually met with theologians warning you could sail off the edge.
It was general knowledge in 1492 that the world was round and not flat. Sailors knew it since the time of the Greeks. However, Irving's flat earth story was great for book sales. The downside was he created an historic myth that survived into the 20th Century.
After Gabriel Irving sold the house in 1874, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and his brother James Alfred rented Tranquility from Otis Swan. Tranquility was located on East Main Street.
TR was 15 during the family's first summer in Oyster Bay and he developed a lifelong friendship with Otis Swan’s son William. The two families would go out together and have dinner at each other’s home. Swan helped establish the Matinecock Masonic Lodge in 1893. He later convinced TR to become a fellow Mason.
In his diary TR wrote the summers were filled with shooting birds and ducks, "frogging," and fishing with large nets. There was sailing on the bay and in Long Island Sound. Once he rowed to Whitestone with a friend. It was over 25 miles each way. They "got caught in nor-easter" on the way back finally getting home at 1:00 in the morning. The next summer he rowed alone across the Sound to Rye and back.
When TR turned 16 his personality began to change. He developed a sense of chivalry and became contemptuous of those who swore and told off color jokes. Above all he was convinced he could do things better than anyone else.
Edith Carow was Corrine’s best friend, and, in the summer, she received one invitation after another inviting her to join the Roosevelts in Oyster Bay. She was only 13 in 1874, and the trip was a bit of an adventure. It began with a carriage ride to Long Island City where she’d pick up the Long Island Railroad’s Hicksville line to Syosset. From Syosset it was 6 miles to Oyster Bay. The Roosevelts would have a buggy waiting for her at the Syosset station.
Theodore Sr. and Mittie generally left the kids on their own. After church TR’s dad always wanted to know what everyone thought of the sermon and from time to time, he wrote plays for the kids to act out. There were picnics and sailing. TR named his boat Edith and liked to row her across the bay. TR not only spent time with Edith. He also enjoyed being with Corrine’s friends Fanny Smith, Annie Murray and Nellie Smith who would all become Roosevelt's friends.
TR spent a lot of the time being tutored by Arthur Cutler in preparation for Harvard's entrance exams. Upon acceptance he left Tranquility on Corrine's 15th birthday, Friday September 27th, 1876, and traveled to Harvard to begin the fall semester.
After graduation, he married Alice Lee. Their honeymoon night was spent in Springfield, Massachusetts at the Massasoit House. They put off their formal honeymoon because TR had to attend classes at Columbia. They'd go on a formal 5 month honeymoon through Europe in 1881.
In 1880 they began their marriage spending the first two weeks in Oyster Bay at Tranquility where servants waited on them hand and foot. Breakfast was at 10:00. Dinner at 2:00 and Tea at 7:00. The summer crowd had long since gone home and the two had Oyster Bay all to themselves. They played tennis, took long walks and long drives in the family buggy. Their only contact with the outside world was when the morning paper arrived.
November 2nd TR was driven by carriage to East Norwich where he cast his first vote for president helping to elect Republican James A. Garfield. In his diary he wrote, “There is hardly an hour we are not together; how I wish it would last forever.”
In 1884 John A. Wood and Son were hired by Roosevelt to build a country home in Oyster Bay originally named Leeholm for his pregnant wife Alice. Before construction began Alice died of Bright's Disease on Valentine's Day two days after giving birth to their baby daughter Alice and four years from the date they announced their engagement. Construction began in March. 1884 and finished in May 1885. During some of that time TR went to the Band Lands in an effort to make a go of in during the “Beef Bonanza.” While he was away Bamie oversaw the construction and raised Alice.
In September of 1885 TR was in New York back from the Bad Lands campaigning for Republican hopefuls when he saw Edith. The two began to date TR changed the name of the house to Sagamore Hill just a few weeks before his engagement to Edith on November 17th, 1885.
John Weekes and family were the last to own Tranquility. By the 1940s the house needed a lot of repairs and by 1945 the family let the property go in a tax sale. It was subdivided into four lots and Tranquility disappeared.
In this picture of Tranquility Mittie and Theodore Sr. are on the veranda. Seated are Edith on the left and Corrine on the right.