The Accident
The Deep End #4
I went to Sagamore Hill yesterday. It’s one of my all time favorite places. It’s the site of Teddy Roosevelt’s former home and estate. You may know him as the 26th President of the United States. Good ol’ Teddy is famous for spearheading the National Park Service, bolstering the U.S. Navy, driving anti-trust policies, and, of course, for the teddy bear. (The latter is famously named after him—I think. Could be urban legend, but we’ll get to that later. Not that, the other thing.)
Anyway, yes we went to Sagamore Hill. Located in Cove Neck, Long Island. An exclusive section of the already exclusive Oyster Bay area. Just on the outskirts of Nassau County. A stone’s throw from Suffolk.
Melissa and I have been going to Sagamore Hill for years. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous. Teddy’s house sits atop the aforementioned hill looming large over your mid-sized hybrid as you drive into the estate.
Behind the home are paths leading to the old (and still in use) servant’s house, the beautifully designed parking lot, a museum, and a nature trail. The latter is, of course, the only reason we’ve ever gone to Sagamore Hill.
Yes, despite the “coolness” of Teddy Roosevelt that’s been drilled into my head since the second grade, we have not gone here to be drenched in history and all things early-1900s presidency has to offer. Not at all.
In fact, we had never been to Teddy’s home—or the museum—once. Until today.
Our reason for coming to this luxurious piece of property, much like any other excursion we find ourselves on during the weekend, is for some beautiful views and some peace and quiet.
The nature trail leads you on a ten to fifteen minute walk down a steep dirt path to a gorgeous private beach that the Roosevelts called their own until the United States deemed it a National Historic Site in 1962 and began allowing the public to visit. The beach is the main draw for most visitors (at least in my head). Families and dog walkers alike make way through the woods to the rocky beach to take in a breath of clean air and a stunning view of Cold Spring Harbor, with fancy mansions that lay nestled in the trees across the way.
We’ve been to this beach at least a double-digit amount of times. Not sure if the digits have reached triple yet. Once, Huxley, our ravenous corgi, was mistakenly taken off-leash here (I’m not naming names as to who allowed it), and ran rampant for over twenty minutes while Melissa and I tried to get him back.
My point in saying all of this is this:
In all of the times that we visited this place, we never had the slightest desire to step into the Old Orchard Museum. This is the aforementioned museum that sits at the entrance to the nature path
Once, my brother actually drove all the way out here from Queens just to see the museum and ol’ T.R.’s house. I was shocked. Hearing about his impending trip there, I was positive it was for a peaceful stroll on the beach. I was eager to hear him singing the praises of the nature trail upon his return. When he got home telling me tales of the house and what type of Teddy undergarments they had on display, I was beside myself. I couldn’t have thought of a bigger waste of time. He didn’t even go check out the beach! This generation truly is screwed.
Anyway, today, er yesterday, as we parked the car and made our way to the nature path, I caught sight of the museum. That’s when it struck me.
F*ck it. Let’s go in here.
It’s funny to think of the places we pass by every day. Fixtures in our minds. Complete and utter background characters who aren’t supposed to utter a line in the story of our lives. How many places have you walked past every day without knowing what it looks like inside? Sometimes I’ll paint a picture of what something looks like in my head. Nine times out of ten I’m dead wrong. And this time was no different.
For whatever reason, the painting I had made of the innards of the Old Orchard Museum was decrepit. A single room shack with a shrine to Teddy at its center. His disciples kneeling at the altar beneath the life-sized replica of his head as they pray for offerings of buffalo steaks and fluffy stuffed bears.
To be polite to myself, I was quite off.
The museum had three large rooms which set you on a walking path, quite unlike the nature path, through Teddy’s life. At the end was a bookstore and gift shop. Cool! Some sweet T.R. merch! Unfortunately my wallet remained as full as it was when I walked in. The museum was free and Melissa didn’t let me buy one single trinket.
Alas—
We walked through the museum to learn some cool things. For starters, young Teddy succumbed to the same grotesque mutton chops that John Quincy Adams had. I never thought I’d see the light of day when someone besides John Quincy thought it was a good idea to grow such abhorrent facial hair
Later we came to the reminder that Teddy became President through an “accident”. (Much like our being at the museum in the first place.) During his initial presidency, certain members of the public and the jealous upper crust labeled him ‘the Accidental President’.
Here’s his timeline in layman’s terms:
January 1st, 1899 - December 31st, 1900. 33rd Governor of New York.
March 4th, 1901 - September 14th, 1901. Vice President of the United States of America.
September 14th, 1901 - March 4, 1901. President of the United States.
(Note that this next set of information is based solely on my reading of the museum text)
Apparently as Governor of New York some people in power didn’t like Teddy and pushed him to receive the vice-presidential nomination of the Republican party for the 1900 election as William McKinley’s running mate. This was done to push Roosevelt into a powerless position. A position that he regarded as a “dead end job”.
McKinley won the election, and Roosevelt was sworn in as VP. Everyone was happy. Until McKinley’s untimely death via assassination in September of 1901.
Enter the “accident” that was Roosevelt’s first presidential term.
Poor McKinley. Barely remembered. And the guy that took over for him is still heralded as one of the best presidents ever. At least Mount McKinley, the highest mountain peak in North America, is named after him — hey wait1.
Roosevelt ended up being elected president outright for his second term, thus ending any claim that he wasn’t the rightful president. After his final term ended, he rode into the sunset. He traveled with his family to Africa, Europe, and South America, and was welcomed with acclaim pretty much everywhere.
Until something changed.
During the final years of his presidency, knowing his time as America’s Top Guy (thanks Yannis Pappas) was about to be up, Roosevelt set up his successor.
Enter William Howard Taft.
Teddy thought Tafty shared much of the same values as he did. Boy was he wrong.
Teddy came back from Europe to break some eggs and crack some skulls after fearing that the progressive policies he had put into place during his time as President were in danger of being destroyed by Taft’s much more conservative views.
In short, he needed to become Top Guy again.
So Teddy, being the gamesman that he was, tried to run against Taft for the Republican nomination of 1912. Ultimately, he lost. Not taking no for an answer, he created the Bull Moose Party and ran as a third party in the presidential election.
This bull-alsy move lead to the republican vote getting split between Taft and Roosevelt and the Democratic candidate winning with only 42% of the popular vote.
Ouch.
At least Roosevelt could wear the championship belt of garnering the highest share of the popular vote by a third-party candidate in US history. Hurray for moral victories!
Oh yea, by the way. That democrat who ended up winning was none other than The Professor, Woodrow Wilson. Better known to me as the guy who signed off on the Federal Reserve Act.
This bit of history struck me as pretty strange.
Was Roosevelt outed as Governor of New York so that they could kill McKinley and make him president in order to gain a huge amount of public support that would allow him to eventually create a third party to oppose his original party, and then split the vote of that party so that the other party, led by Woodrow Wilson AKA The Professor, would win and under every American citizen’s nose sign off on the Federal Reserve Act?
Of course not.
I’m not saying that’s what happened at all. I’m also not saying it’s not possible.
Anything is.
Anyway, all I’m saying is this: when you’re going about your daily routine, and you see a place that you pass by every day, but never went inside. Poke your head in.
You never know what you might find.
I’m John Mistretta. This is The Deep End. Good day.
.
Yea, no. They took that away from him too. Google Denali. Sorry, Billyboy.