Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993 TAG: 9311080079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KEENE LENGTH: Medium
The Theodore Roosevelt Association restored the cabin called "Pine Knot"in southern Albemarle County last year for about $22,000.
Association leaders want to maintain the cottage's rustic setting. They keep its exact location a secret and say the landscape would be ruined by a visitor center and parking lots.
A local advisory board looking at the site would like to open it for public tours. Some members of the association, which owns the cabin, agree.
About 100 of the association's members gathered for a weekend meeting in Charlottesville to discuss the cabin. The group toured the site, but made no decisions.
Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and conservationist. He used the humble cabin to hunt, watch birds and read, Roosevelt biographer William H. Harbaugh of Charlottesville said.
Harbaugh said Roosevelt and his family visited the cabin eight times during Roosevelt's second administration, from 1904-1908.
Roosevelt relatives differ on what should become of the retreat.
"There seems to be a tremendous appetite in this country for presidential places," said Tweed Roosevelt, an investment banker in Boston.
Standing just outside the cabin Saturday, the great-grandson of the president said he hopes Pine Knot becomes very accessible. It "humanizes" a president to see how he lived, he said.
Alexandra Roosevelt Dworkin, a great-grandaughter of Roosevelt, calls the cottage charming, but compares it to attractions that advertise "George Washington slept here."
Paul Saunier, a member of the local advisory board, said it would be refreshing for visitors to view the small cabin after visiting the grand homes of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe nearby.
The association has restored the cabin's shutters, window panes, floors and some of its walls. Both stone chimneys are in need of repair and will cost several thousand dollars to fix.
"This is exactly the way it was," Harbaugh said, pointing to the bare, thin wood walls that feature a few new boards.
Harbaugh would like to see the property renamed the Theodore and Edith Roosevelt Nature Conservancy.
Harbaugh said a nature area would be the perfect way to honor Roosevelt, a president who established 150 national forests, four federal game preserves and 51 bird reservations.
by CNB