Teddy Roosevelt's Retreat in Virginia

I'm currently reading The RIver of Doubt, about Teddy Roosevelt's trip to map a remote river in Brazil; a trip that nearly killed him. At the beginning of the book, there's a mention of his Presidential retreat in Virginia: Pine Knot (www.pineknot.org). Curious, I looked it up (the Internet is a wondrous place) and found it was en route to the Mountain Lake Resort in southwestern VA where we were planning on spending a few days to beat the heat. More on that in future posts. So we arranged a visit--it's open by appointment only--and set off.

Keene is about 20 minutes south of Charlottesville. The retreat itself is on a road that is paved for about the first 1/4 mile, then one comes to a four-board black wooden fence with a gated driveway. This is where we met Paula, the docent.




A short drive inside the gate we parked and walked up the hill, through the woods to Pine Knot. The shade of the woods was very welcome as it was a very hot day. On the walk Paula shared some of the history of Pine Knot. TR's wife, Edith, bought it for him as a retreat from the pressures and city life of Washington, knowing that he loved the wilderness. They would attach their car to the mail train for the four-hour trip from Washington, disembark at North Garden, and make their way the 10 miles to Pine Knot either by carriage or horseback for a weekend or seven days, often at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Edith bought 15 acres originally, and bought more when TR ran for re-election, so that the total propery was 90 acres. However, running as a Progressive candidate splintered the Republican vote, and Teddy lost. They only came back one more time to Pine Knot before Teddy's death at age 60. Edith kept it, however, until she was in her 80s, selling it to a family friend. Teddy Roosevelt IV bought the property back in 1986 and donated the property to the Theodore Roosevelt Association.





Pine Knot is a very modest place, not only by Presidential standards, but by most standards. No running water, no electricity. It is very rustic. Water came from a spring 300 yards away down the hill and it was 7-year old Archie Roosevelt's job to carry the water to the house.

Edith bought it for $280, including renovations. The Roosevelts added the covered porch--when you are on the porch, you can see the windows on the second floor that look out into the inside of the porch's roof. She also had the central staircase moved and the main floor opened into one large room instead of two smaller rooms, and added a fireplace on each end. The staircase would have been about where Fred and Paula are standing. The cabin is virutally unchanged since the Roosevelts used it.




It was primarily a retreat for the Roosevelt family, so they had few visitors there. One of them, on what was to be TR's last visit to Pine Knot, was the naturalist John Burroughs. TR birded the area with Burroughs, and they each showed the other two new birds! TR and Burroughs documented 75 birds in all at Pine Knot. Roosevelt's complete bird list at Pine Knot included what must have been one of the last passenger pigeon sightings in the US.

We had a great talk with Paula, who is a native Virginian from the Warrenton area. Legend has it that George Washington's will was hidden during the Revolutionary War at the farm her family now owns. Anyone who knows Fred knows we had a hard time leaving, but the Mountain Lake Resort beckoned. And dinner was only served until 8:30 pm... The fear of no dinner finally got us moving--we bid Paula thanks and farewell, left a donation, and were on our way to what we hoped would be a respite from the heat! (Have I mentioned it was a very hot day?)

-- Posted from my iPad!