A house that was Teddy Roosevelt's true home

"Now here's something interesting." Our guide pointed to a book of German fables on a table, and explained that President Theodore Roosevelt, an excellent reader of German, sometimes read to his children from that very volume.

That was one of many improbable things I learned about the 26th president during a recent visit to Sagamore Hill, his beloved home near Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Our tour group was greeted at the front door by Michael Schwartz, a National Park Service volunteer guide. The 23-room, shingle-style, Queen Anne house reminded me of a hunting lodge, befitting an avid hunter and explorer - dark woodwork on walls and ceilings, and lots, I mean lots, of mounted animal heads. From its broad porch, Roosevelt could see Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound.

Roosevelt, the guide told us, built Sagamore Hill for his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, who died shortly after giving birth to daughter Alice, and didn't live to see it completed. In 1887, Roosevelt moved in with his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, and young Alice - who was joined in time by five siblings. Theodore and Edith would call Sagamore Hill home for the rest of their lives.

The Theodore Roosevelt Association purchased the house after Edith died in 1948 and donated it to the Park Service in 1962. Virtually all the furnishings on the first and second floors are original, so what we were seeing is what Roosevelt saw - the china, the silverware, the rugs, indeed the very bed in which he died in 1919.

The Park Service restored the house to reflect the years of Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909), when Sagamore Hill was known as "the summer White House."

It doesn't take long to figure out what made Roosevelt tick. In the entrance hall, the head of a huge Cape buffalo shot by Roosevelt dominates the room. Below the buffalo, two tusks from an elephant, also Roosevelt trophies, hold musical chimes that were used to announce dinner.

To the right is Roosevelt's book-lined study, where portraits of his heroes - his father, plus George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Davy Crockett - hang on the wall. "Rooms tell you a lot about people," Schwartz said, pointing out that Roosevelt was a voracious reader. "He read a book a day, and currently there are 8,000 volumes in the house, and he pretty much touched every one of them."

The sweep of Roosevelt's interests is astonishing. He was a politician, explorer, soldier, diplomat, hunter, author - even a skilled taxidermist. Ornithology was one of his great loves. While president, he maintained a list of the birds that he saw on the White House grounds.

Like many early conservationists, Schwartz explained, Roosevelt was both an avid hunter and nature lover. As president, he was responsible for preserving millions of acres of wild areas, including the Grand Canyon, through the creative use of his presidential powers.

Edith ran Sagamore Hill and the adjacent farm from the drawing room, one of the brightest and least masculine rooms in the house, with pale blue walls and couches and chairs upholstered in green. Edith's small, dainty desk, a gift from her aunt, sits next to a window. Yet even here there are animal skins: A polar-bear rug on the floor was a gift from Adm. Robert Peary.

The stunning north room, a 1905 addition to the house constructed of cypress, maple and mahogany, showcases treasures acquired during Roosevelt's public life. Among them are huge elephant tusks, a gift from the Emperor of Abyssinia, and a small Samurai statue from Adm. Togo Heihachiro, a Japanese naval hero. Several Frederic Remington statues are on display here as well, and Roosevelt's hat and saber from his days as a Rough Rider have been placed on the horns of an elk's head mounted on the wall.

Roosevelt met here with representatives from Japan and Russia during the negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War, an effort for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. But it also served as a family room where the Roosevelts celebrated holidays, held weddings and spent time in the evening playing games and reading.

The social center of the house was the dining room. Schwartz pointed out that the cooks often had to arrange multiple seatings at meals because Roosevelt received so many guests. On any given day, cabinet members, Rough Riders or old friends from his days out West might be invited to dinner. A moose head keeps watch from one wall.

Overnight guests were put up in the small, plainly furnished, single and double guest rooms on the second floor. Eleanor Roosevelt, the president's niece and frequent visitor, often stayed in a single room.

As we passed the pantry, Schwartz noted that only the cook, Mary O'Rourke, and Edith had keys to the room. Apparently, Roosevelt had a fondness for desserts. "There is a story that they used to lock up the sweets in the pantry," he said.

Roosevelt was, above all, a devoted family man, and his children's belongings can be found throughout the house. The third-floor bedroom of Theodore Jr. looks like a typical teenage boy's room, with a tennis racket, lacrosse sticks and a Harvard pennant. Children's books, a tricycle, dolls, stuffed animals, a crib and even teddy bears are on display in the nursery. Alice's bedroom holds furnishings that came from her mother, Roosevelt's first wife; on the dresser are brushes, makeup containers and a mirror.

The homeyness of the place was not lost on Mary Alice Moore, who was visiting from Fairfield, Connecticut. "This feels like a real home," she said. "You can imagine the people, their life and family."

Sagamore Hill was the only home that Theodore Roosevelt ever owned. He loved it and spent every moment he could there. It was also where he died, at age 60.

Visitors are encouraged to walk the grounds, where there are plenty of walking paths, picnic tables, benches and a nature trail leading to Cold Spring Harbor. Also on the site is Old Orchard, the former home of Theodore Jr., which now houses the Theodore Roosevelt Museum.

"He's a great historical figure, and you learn a lot about folks by looking at where and how they lived," said presidential history buff Ken Dort, visiting from suburban Chicago's Park Ridge. "Sagamore Hill is a perfect reflection of what he was all about."

Later, I sat at a quiet spot near the family pet cemetery. Schwartz told us earlier that when a family pet died, the Roosevelts formed a solemn procession to the deceased's final resting place.

Theodore Roosevelt may have been larger than life, but these little things about him continually intrigue me.