Cultural Landscape Report, Volume 2: Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, National Park Service

Bellavia, Regina; Uschold, David; NPS Northeast Regional Office

Sagamore Hill was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, for thirty-nine years. It served as the Summer White House from 1901-1909 and played an important role in Roosevelt's family life. Roosevelt purchased the property in 1880 and constructed the main house and many outbuildings. Throughout his tenure, the property was operated as a working farm with a garden, pastures, and agricultural fields that provided fruits and vegetables for the Roosevelt family. Although eventually surrounded by the palatial estates of Long Island's Gold Coast, Sagamore Hill remained a rural country home and an embodiment of the President's ideals of home, family, and love of nature. Sagamore Hill is located in the village of Cove Neck, Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, thirty-five miles from Manhattan on Long Island's north shore. The National Park Service (NPS) currently operates the 83-acre property as the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, to commemorate the life and political career of Theodore Roosevelt. The Cultural Landscape Report for Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Volume 1: Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis, published in 1995, documented the establishment and evolution of Sagamore Hill and inventoried the existing conditions of the site. Volume 1 also assessed the property's historical significance and evaluated the site's integrity. Through a comparison of historic and existing conditions, character-defining features from the historic period were identified. The overall period of significance for the property has been established as 1884-1919, spanning Theodore Roosevelt's tenure at the property. Volume 1 documents Roosevelt's intense interest and attachment to the landscape at Sagamore Hill - the garden, fields, pastures and woodlands - and broadens the associative significance of his home to include the entire property, and not merely the house. Volume 1 also agreed that the property has additional significance with the main house as an important example of Queen Anne architecture. Currently, the Secretary of the Interior recognizes four treatments for the management of historic resources: preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Volume 2 explores these treatment alternatives and recommends rehabilitation as the most appropriate choice of treatment to be undertaken for the landscape at Sagamore Hill NHS. It outlines through a feature-by-feature list of tasks identifying how that treatment should be implemented. In addition, through the course of this project, park staff identified many additional recommendations that may be future considerations for the park. While many of these represent more long-term management recommendations that would not be accomplished as part of this treatment plan, this document provides a logical opportunity to "capture" these ideas.

Cultural Landscape Report, Volume 2: Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, National Park Service

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