Housing the Staff

Housing the Staff. Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. , The Roosevelt family needed full-time assistance to maintain the house and farm. Theodore had a devoted valet, James Amos, he called his “head man.” The house staff included a cook, waitress, chambermaid, and a nurse who had worked for Edith’s family for many years. Charles Lee, a coachman at the White House, was the family chauffeur., In 1910, Roosevelt built the home you see in the distance for his married staff. Amos and his wife, Annie, and Lee and his wife, Clara, shared this home. Most other staff were single. The cooks and maids shared the rooms on the third floor of the Roosevelt Home, while the grooms and farm hands lived in quarters on the second floor of the stable and lodge., “ . . . [M]y wife . . . asked Mrs. Roosevelt about cutting down a tree . . . in front of our cottage. It was very much in the way and she thought it would improve the place if taken down. Mrs. Roosevelt answered: ‘Certainly, I’ll have Mr. Roosevelt come right over.’ And sure enough . . . the President of the United States came over and chopped down the tree for us.”- James Amos, A Hero to His Valet.