What makes the difference in the fates of these buildings is a champion, someone who cared enough to make the dream of preservation a reality. Likely it was someone who had such a profound connection to the structure and realized the importance of keeping it for others to enjoy.
Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby had such a connection to her grand and rambling childhood home, Sagamore Hill in picturesque Oyster Bay, on Long Island, New York. The home, a stately and energetic tribute to Americana, served not only as the family home for the large, active Roosevelt clan, it was also the Summer White House for eight years, when her father, Theodore “TR” Roosevelt, was president of the United States. The Roosevelts were the only family to have ever lived there, and they did so for more than sixty years. Stepping into the home now, one needs little imagination to place the cast of characters — the young, exuberant Roosevelt family — bustling about, engaging in many hobbies and passions.
Visit Oyster Bay today, and the Roosevelt name still looms large. There’s an elementary school, an independent bookshop, café and pub, memorial park, beach and arena, all bearing the Roosevelt name in some form, whether it be just “Theodore” or “TR,” Teddy, or even just the familiar, identifiable bespectacled faced TR image.
It is likely, without the familial devotion and dedication to history and preservation, led by Ethel Roosevelt, the imprint of Theodore Roosevelt and his large family who once were the pillars of the community might have been forgotten, or at least less present in the town of Oyster Bay, with the passage of time.
It was Ethel’s desire to preserve her family’s history that functions as civic engagement because her desire to do so has resulted in a continuous interaction between Sagamore Hill and the public.
Women’s civic engagement is most often recognized with suffragettes who fought for the passage of the 19th amendment, and women who championed the subsequent waves of feminism that followed. Ethel Roosevelt’s stalwart preservation of her family’s historic home illustrates that the ways to engage with public and to make a civic contribution are more than that. Her championing of Sagamore Hill illustrates precisely how the National Park Service defines what it means to be civically engaged: “Civic engagement” is a philosophy, a discipline, and a practice defined as “a continuous, dynamic conversation with the public on many levels that reinforces public commitment to the preservation of heritage resources.”
By engaging Sagamore Hill with the public, Ethel made certain to enhance and maintain a relationship with not only the local community of Oyster Bay, but with every visitor to the home. Her civic engagement continues to invite education and understanding, research and inquiry about her family, the home, and the greater Oyster Bay community.
Perhaps even her engagement inspires other children of public figures to be the keepers of their family legacies. Both near Oyster Bay and far away from it, the public continues to visit and keep alive the family names. Without bluster or attention-seeking, perhaps the most private of Roosevelts made the most lasting public contribution in her stalwart effort to preserve Sagamore Hill.
Nichola D. Gutgold, PhD is a professor of communication at Penn State Lehigh Valley at work on a chapter about the civic engagement of Ethel Roosevelt to make Sagamore Hill a National Historic Site. She is author of more than ten books on women's rhetoric and believes that public speaking can change the world. An international scholar and award-winning teacher, she has been featured on NPR, Katie Couric's Podcast, in the New York Times, US News and World Reports, the LA Times, The Washington Post and other national and international media.
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