A reduction in public tour hours at the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, the former home of President Theodore Roosevelt, has drawn concern from local officials and community leaders, who say the cuts threaten not just local tourism but the preservation of American values.
Sagamore Hill drew more than 130,000 visitors in 2023 and added an estimated $12 million to the local economy, according to a 2024 National Park Service report.
But in March, it reduced its house tours from four days a week to just three with a later start time for the tours (originally offered from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., now starting at 1 p.m.), due to staffing shortages in the NPS.
The change comes amid broader budget constraints, including the elimination of more than 1,000 positions across the agency.
Asked to comment, Sagamore Hill Superintendent Jonathan Parker told the Herald that the park service’s communications office was handling media inquiries about all national sites. The NPS’s Region 1 office, which includes Long Island, did not respond to requests for comment.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine, whose district includes
Sagamore Hill, said the site’s historical and symbolic importance far outweighs the budget cuts driving the change.
“Sagamore Hill is a special place for me, and for many other Americans,” Lavine said. “My parents took me there in 1955, when I was 8 and it had just opened as a public facility. We never forgot that. It is, to me, hallowed ground.”
Lavine, who wrote a letter of protest to President Trump about the cutbacks, said the reduction in hours amounted to “a wholesale butchering of our national economy,” and accused the Trump administration and its allies of prioritizing partisan interests over historical preservation.
“So Trump is reducing the hours at one of our great national institutions, one of our great national jewels,” Lavine said. “At the same time, his crony Tom Cole, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, was able to use his personal connections to keep a Social Security office open in Cole’s district. … That kind of favoritism is a discrimination against every other American.”
One of the “Summer White House’s” ancillary buildings, Orchard House, once the home of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., has also seen its tour hours cut. Previously, there were ranger-guided tours five days a week from spring through fall.
Brian Tadler, a trustee of the Friends of Sagamore Hill, said he was “deeply concerned” about the impact of the reduced hours.
“It’s very disheartening, as someone who loves the National Park Service and everything beautiful that it offers,” Tadler said. I’ve spoken to a lot of citizens of Oyster Bay, and they’re not too happy about things right now.”
For Lavine, the cuts reflect what he sees as a broader effort to reshape public memory.
“To myself, and I strongly suspect, to everyone who has studied American history and values our story, this is part and parcel of an attempt on the part of the Trump administration to rewrite history to their liking,” he said. “These efforts … to diminish sites like Sagamore Hill are dangerous.”
Lavine reflected on Roosevelt’s legacy, and its stark contrast to modern political rhetoric. He also noted that his grandparents immigrated to the United States during Roosevelt’s presidency, as did his wife’s. That personal connection, Lavine said, strengthens his commitment to the site’s preservation.
He shared a story, possibly apocryphal, about an immigrant peddler named Arnie Singer, the founder of the former Singer’s Department Store in Glen Cove, who unknowingly came to Sagamore Hill to sell pots and pans, only to be greeted by Roosevelt himself.
According to Lavine, Roosevelt told the man, who fearfully tried to bow, “Stand up, young man. In this nation, no one stands beneath another.”
“That story,” Lavine said, “is what Sagamore Hill represents. And this is also what America is supposed to represent.”
Tadler noted that the site had faced problems before the recent cuts. In particular, he highlighted the reduction in the number of volunteers over the past five years from around 80 to 10 or fewer.
“Having a real volunteer force is very important there,” Tadler said. “It allows them to operate more efficiently, to have more capacity, and to better accommodate the public.”
The economic stakes are also significant for Oyster Bay and the surrounding North Shore. According to Lavine, the site’s 130,000 annual visitors contribute directly to local businesses and the hospitality industry.
“We certainly lose infinitely more than we would have lost by the closure of a Social Security office in some small town in Oklahoma,” Lavine said. “These are the kinds of sites that bring people in and connect them with history.”
Lavine said he had heard from numerous constituents who were upset by the reduction in hours.
“Many people had reached out to tell me that they loved the letter, and it meant a great deal to them, and it should,” he said, referring to his letter to Trump. “The only people who would have been disappointed in that letter would be the sort of people who do not believe in Theodore Roosevelt’s brand of Americanism.”
Lavine also expressed concern about the potential closure of the Theodore Roosevelt Museum at the site. For now, Friends of Sagamore Hill continues to advocate for restored funding and increased public access. “Our hope is that attention to this issue will help turn things around,” Tadler said. “We owe that to Roosevelt, to our community and to the generations still to come.”
The organization will host an open discussion at Christ Church, in Oyster Bay, on April 22 to hear from and talk with volunteers at Sagamore Hill, and to learn about the history of the site. For more on the event, visit FriendsOfSagamoreHill.org.
