Grounds of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Theodore Roosevelt purchased 155 acres in Oyster Bay, New York, in 1880. Much of the property was being used for farming by the previous owner, so there were orchards and cultivated fields already in place. Once he moved to the estate full time in 1887, he continued to farm roughly 47 acres. Roosevelt was what is called a gentleman farmer, meaning that while he owned the farm and liked helping out on occasion, he had a manager who ran things for him. In fact, his wife, Edith, had more to do with the day-to-day activities than he did, particularly as he got more into politics starting in 1889.

Being a farm, there were of course various outbuildings. Most were built between 1885 and 1905, and many of these still survive today. Visitors to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site are invited to walk the grounds and stop at the buildings. A couple are open with exhibits inside, but most are closed to the public. There are numerous wayside exhibits on the grounds that impart information about the buildings and the Roosevelt Family’s life at Sagamore Hill.

Most everything is along the way to either Sagamore Hill (the name of Roosevelt’s house) or the Visitor Center, which is inside Theodore Roosevelt Jr’s Old Orchard mansion, so you don’t have to walk out of your way to see the farm buildings. The distance between the two houses is only a third of a mile. By the time you are done exploring, you most likely will not even have walked a mile.

Sidewalk between the Sagamore Hill and Old Orchard mansions at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

The original barn at Sagamore Hill, which was on the property when Roosevelt bought it, collapsed and was torn down in 1904. In its place was what the Roosevelt’s called the New Barn, built in 1907. There used to be a stable and lodge for housing some of the farm animals as well as single farmhands and the property caretaker. When it burned down in 1944, the New Barn was converted into housing for the farm manager, and even today the National Park Service uses it for employee housing.

New Barn at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

A chicken house and a shed for storing tools, wagons, harnesses, and other farm implements are located next to the parking lot and picnic area. The exact dates of construction are unknown, but because both have concrete floors, they had to have been built after 1890, most likely around 1900. Both buildings have exhibits inside, though they were closed for renovation when I visited. They have since been reopened.

Chicken house (right) and shed (left) at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

The icehouse was built around 1885, the same time as Sagamore Hill. There was no residential icemaking technology at the time, so ice came from cutting blocks of ice from nearby ponds and then storing them inside a heavily insulated building. Chunks of ice would be chopped off the blocks when needed and moved into a smaller ice box inside the house, which is why the icehouse is next to the main house.

It is uncertain when the icehouse stopped being used for storing ice, other than it certainly wasn’t being used for this purpose by 1950. In 1905 a water tank was installed inside, and a report from this time stated that the building was being used to store miscellaneous items. However, older staff members who were interviewed many years later claimed the icehouse was still being used to store ice for most of the time the Roosevelt’s lived at Sagamore Hill, which was up until 1948.

The icehouse was converted into a restroom around 1951 by the Theodore Roosevelt Association, an organization that purchased the property and ran it as a historical attraction starting in 1953. The icehouse remained a restroom even when Sagamore Hill National Historic Site was created in 1963 and the National Park Service took over. When a visitor center was built next to the chicken house in 1984, the restrooms were removed from the icehouse, and new ones were installed in the visitor center (which was torn down in 2021 after being heavily damaged by fire).

Ice House at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

The windmill standing today was built by the National Park Service in 1971. The pump house below it is from 1905. The original windmill was built around the same time as the main house, for it was part of the estate’s water system. It was replaced in 1905 when the entire system was upgraded. The replacement windmill was removed in the late 1940s, sometime before 1950.

The existing windmill is only similar to the 1905 version. The difference is that the original wheel was a 22-foot diameter wooden wheel, whereas the new one is a 12-foot diameter metal wheel. The wooden wheel would have been so heavy that modern windmill motors could not move it.

Windmill and pump house at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

The only building that is not along the walkway between the Sagamore Hill and Old Orchard mansions is the Grey Cottage, a house built in 1910 for married employees. Two couples lived in the building, Roosevelt’s valet, James Amos, and his wife, and the family chauffer, Charles Lee, and his wife. Single staff members, who were always female cooks, waitresses, and nursemaids, lived in Sagamore Hill on the third floor. Today the Grey Cottage is a residence for park employees.

The Grey Cottage at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

The new Visitor Center is housed in the Old Orchard mansion that was built by Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in 1937-38. He purchased four acres of land from his mother to build the house. The land was part of the farm’s original apple orchard, thus the name Old Orchard.

Old Orchard Mansion at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

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