For this President’s Day Edition of Mansard Monday, here is a then and now look at the President Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in New York City. The only Presidential house I can find with a Mansard roof.
By the time President Roosevelt died in 1919, his childhood home, built in 1854, had been converted to commercial use and the facade dramatically altered. The Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association purchased the property and hired architect Theodate Pope Riddle to meticulously reproduce Roosevelt’s home as it was in his childhood, to be furnished with family portraits, original furniture, and other Roosevelt heirlooms. The house opened to the public in 1923 and is now operated by the National Park Service.
The grand homes of “Great Men” were the focus of early preservation efforts. The house was recreated for its association with Roosevelt, not for its architecture. This was perhaps the first restored Victorian era building in the country, well before the architecture of that period was widely appreciated.
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© Scott t. Hanson 2024.
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