Many students at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute have enjoyed the excellent classes on FDR and Teddy Roosevelt taught by historians Draper Hunt and John Sutherland. So many of us were delighted when the institute announced a three-day excursion to New York State to visit Teddy’s home, Sagamore Hill, at Oyster Bay on Long Island, FDR’s home, Springwood, and Eleanor’s cottage, Val-kill, at Hyde Park.

Long bus rides were involved, but Draper and John made the time fly with their fascinating lectures on both of these outstanding Americans, plus we were able to watch videos of the presidential documentaries first shown on the PBS show, “American Experience.”

Built in 1885, Sagamore Hill is a wonderful, rambling, 23-room Victorian that, according to Theodore Roosevelt himself, “stands right on the top of the hill, separated by fields and belts of woodland from all other houses, and looks out over the bay and the Sound.” One enters the house through the large front hall, dominated by the head of an enormous South African water buffalo mounted on the wall over a great fireplace. Flanking the fireplace are two gleaming ivory elephant tusks enclosing an ornate brass dinner gong.

Immediately to the right is Roosevelt’s library, with his desk in the corner by a large window looking out on the curving oyster shell driveway. Bookshelves line the walls with framed portraits marching along above them – an oil of his beloved father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., and portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Chief Justice Marshall, George Washington, Sir Thomas Moore and an Indian sagamore- the last, perhaps, in honor of the old Sagamore Mohannis, the original owner of the land the house now occupies.

Edith Roosevelt’s special spot was the drawing room immediately to the left of the front entrance. Edith was Teddy’s second wife – tragically, his first wife, Alice, died on Febr. 14, 1884, two days after the birth of his first child, Alice Lee, and on the same day as his mother – two years later he married his childhood sweetheart, Edith. In strong contrast to the rest of the downstairs, with its heavy, dark paneling and numerous hunting trophies, this room is painted a pale blue, and furnished with comfortable tufted chairs and sofas, along with Edith’s desk and books. I loved seeing the white polar bear rug on the floor, a gift of Maine’s own Adm. Robert Peary. Mrs. Roosevelt lived in this house until her death in 1948, when the house and all of its contents were bought by the Theodore Roosevelt Association and eventually turned over to the National Park Service as a National Historic Site.

The spacious North Room, at the end of the front hall, was added to the house to allow the president to better receive dignitaries to the summer White House. More hunting trophies line the darkly paneled walls, including huge bison and wapiti heads. A gorgeous Oriental carpet graces the floor, a gift from the Sultan of Turkey. It was in this room that President Roosevelt met with delegations from Russia and Japan in his memorable attempt to end the devastating war between these two countries. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in 1905, and in 1906 President Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for handling the negotiations.

On our visit to the Theodore Roosevelt Museum, located nearby in the Georgian home built for Teddy’s son, Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., we viewed the gifts from the delegations, a beautiful silver flagon from Czar Nicholas II of Russia and a handsome sword and dagger set from the Emperor Meiji of Japan. Other exhibits in the museum heralded many of the highpoints of Roosevelt’s life, including his service as assistant secretary of the Navy and sending the Great White Fleet around the world, his exploits as leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish American War, his causing the construction of the Panama Canal and his creation of five national parks. We came away from our visit to Sagamore Hill with an overwhelming admiration for the amazing life of the 26th president.

Our bus took us back up the Hudson River to Hyde Park to visit FDR’s home, Springwood, and the nearby FDR Presidential Library and Museum. Park rangers first took us by the grave of Franklin and Eleanor – a single white block of marble simply engraved with their names and dates of birth and death, surrounded by a well-manicured lawn and lovely flower garden. The mansion itself is of gray stucco with blue-green shutters and an imposing but also welcoming portico entrance.

We were allowed to wander from one end of the first floor to the other, past a cabinet full of stuffed birds (a childhood hobby of FDR), past a formal dining room with settings for 20 guests, and down a hall adorned with almost life-size oil portraits of the president’s parents, James and Sara Roosevelt. The library at the end of the hall extends from the front of the house to the back, boasts two marble fireplaces, a statue of Nike and an incredible Oriental carpet. Bookcases line one wall, surmounted by a row of ship paintings, and in one corner, lending a bit of humor, was a game table with an open Parcheesi board and a Chinese checker game in progress.

On display upstairs was the dumbwaiter used by FDR to reach the second story after his bout with polio forced him to rely on a wheelchair. We saw his boyhood bedroom decorated with a portrait of George Washington, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and over the door, a Harvard Crimson banner. The Pink Room was next, where guests such as Winston Churchill and King George VI slept. The master bedroom had sweeping views across the Hudson to the hills beyond – and the chair where Fala, the Scottish terrier and favorite pet of FDR, always spent the night.

The museum is a treasure-trove of memorabilia. It has the desk FDR used in the White House during his 12 years as chief executive, cluttered with mementos and knickknacks given to him by friends and admirers. Downstairs is his 1936 Ford Phaeton, outfitted with hand controls so that he could drive despite his handicap. A glass case holds a set of steel leg braces that he wore whenever he had to attempt walking in public. Another room served as his private study and is just as he left it in 1945. His desk is in one corner, a wheelchair in another, an oil portrait of his beloved mother Sara is on the wall. An Isfahan carpet covers the floor, a gift from the Shah of Iran after the 1943 Teheran Conference. FDR made several of his so-called fireside chats from this office. Upstairs, a recently opened special exhibit takes one back to the years of the Great Depression, with vivid photos and heart-rending videos.

Our final visit was to Val-kill Cottage, Eleanor Roosevelt’s hideaway, a cozy retreat not too far from Springwood and the only home that was ever really hers. FDR often came here to escape his hectic Washington life and Eleanor returned here to recover from her fact-collecting, whirlwind tours of the country and abroad. Her pine-paneled office has not only her desk where she often wrote her “My Day” newspaper column, but also a comfortable sofa and chairs covered in blue with white piping.

She loved entertaining guests for dinner, even on Sunday nights when it was cook’s night off – she was famous for her scrambled eggs, toast and home fries, the only things she claimed she knew how to prepare. Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina enjoyed informal picnics in her garden, with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked at her outdoor fireplace and ice cream for dessert. After FDR’s death, she received many famous world leaders in her pleasant living room, including Nikita Khrushchev, Marshal Tito, Haile Selassie and Jawaharlal Nehru, all of whom first visited FDR’s grave and then came to pay their respects to his widow and to discuss world events.

Our tours of these three remarkable homes reminded all of us of the considerable impact that these three persons, all bearing the name of “Roosevelt,” had upon our country through so many decades.