Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
Coordinates: 40°52′31.6″N 73°31′56.62″W / 40.875444°N 73.5323944°W
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park is a park in the hamlet of Oyster Bay, New York, honoring President Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States.
Land that the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park presently occupies used to be one of the most unsightly spots in the village; a marshy dumping ground dotted with rundown shacks. For several hundred years the salt marsh had been used for swing cattle, but by the end of the 19th century, squatters had begun to live on the land.
Rail passengers arriving to the newly built Oyster Bay Railroad Station got a birds-eye view of refuse and derelict shanties. One of those passengers was Theodore Roosevelt a frequent commuter on the Long Island Railroad when he served as President of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. Though at the time he had no idea that this would become be a waterfront park dedicated in his names T. R. once said "I wish that we citizens of Oyster Bay could make here a breathing place for all the people of this neighborhood especially the less fortunate ones."
A non-partisan "Roosevelt Permanent Memorial National Committee" was formed on January 10, 1919, just days after Roosevelt's death on January 6. The committee met again in New York City on March 24, 1919, and founded the Roosevelt Memorial Association, which was incorporated by Act of Congress, May 31, 1920, "to perpetuate the memory of Theodore Roosevelt for the benefit of the people of the United States of America and the world."
The Roosevelt Memorial Association had written into its charter three primary goals: to establish a "monumental memorial" to TR in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.; to develop a public park in Oyster Bay, New York; and to raise funds for and maintain an association "to promote the development and application of the policies and ideals of Theodore Roosevelt for the benefit of the American people."
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