Sagamore Hill

Theodore Roosevelt was a New Yorker, a rancher, soldier, naturalist, author, and reformer who became president in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley. He was a whirlwind of energy, leading the Rough Riders in Cuba, busting monopolies, and setting aside vast tracts of land as national parks, forests, and monuments, a conservation legacy that still shapes the American landscape.

Through it all, Sagamore Hill was home. Roosevelt built the house in 1884 to 1885 and returned to it constantly, and during his presidency he spent long summers here, meeting advisors, receiving dignitaries, and conducting the nation's business from his Long Island hilltop, which is why the press called it the Summer White House. It was here, too, that he negotiated an end to a war between Russia and Japan, work that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He died at Sagamore Hill in 1919 and is buried nearby.

The house is a rambling, comfortable, distinctly Victorian home, full of the furnishings and clutter of a large and active family, and it is preserved with an unusual completeness, so that much of what you see belonged to the Roosevelts themselves. Books line the shelves, and the president's own possessions fill the rooms, giving a strong sense of the man's restless, curious mind.

The showpiece is the North Room, a great baronial hall added in 1905 to receive guests and display Roosevelt's astonishing collection. Its walls bristle with the mounted heads of big game, and it holds flags, swords, presidential gifts, and treasures from around the world, a room that captures Roosevelt's love of the hunt, the wilderness, and the wider world all at once. It is one of the most memorable interiors of any presidential home.

Roosevelt was a lifelong naturalist, and the grounds of Sagamore Hill meant as much to him as the house. Beyond the lawns and gardens, a nature trail winds down through the woods to the shore of Oyster Bay, ending at a beach on the sound. Roosevelt walked, rowed, and rambled here constantly, and the setting helped shape the conservation ethic that became one of his great causes.

The estate today protects that landscape as a national historic site, with woodland, salt marsh, and shoreline that draw birds and wildlife much as they did in Roosevelt's day. Walking the trail to the water, it is easy to understand how the man who created the modern national park system found his own refuge here, and why he chose this hilltop as the place to make his home.

Spring greens the grounds and fills the woods with migrating birds, a fresh and pleasant time to combine the house tour with the nature trail. Summer is the season Roosevelt himself favored here, warm and full, though also the busiest, so the shady grounds and the beach are especially welcome.

Autumn brings color to the North Shore woods and a quieter, reflective mood, a lovely time to walk the trail down to the bay. Winter is quiet and stark, when the bare grounds have a somber beauty, and the house, though tours may be more limited, feels especially snug and lived-in.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.