Pine Knot - Homes of Theodore Roosevelt

		T.R.
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Pine Knot
711 Coles Rolling Road
Albemarle County, Keene, Virginia 22946

"... the nicest little place of the kind you could imagine...
it was lovely to sit there in the rocking chairs
and hear all the birds by daytime and at night
the whippoorwills and little forest folk..."

- Theodore Roosevelt, c. 1906

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Pine Knot was purchased by Edith in 1905 as a place for “rest and repairs” for the family to find solitude and pursue both common and separate interests. Between 1905 and 1908, the Roosevelts traveled more than 4 hours by train from Washington D.C. to North Garden, Va., then rode by carriage or on horseback the more than 10 additional miles to Pine Knot. Not until the day after he learned that Russia and Japan had agreed to accept his formal request that they confer jointly to end the Russo-Japanese War, did President Roosevelt see the property. He remarked in a letter to his son that he was “immensely pleased with Mother’s Virginia cottage and its name”.
On his first trip to Pine Knot, Roosevelt tipped his hat to bystanders at the North Garden train station and announced he was “glad to become a landholder in your community.” He mounted a handsome sorrel stallion and made the picturesque ride along the North Fork of the Hardware River to Round Top where Edith met him and their good friends the Wilmers (who owned Round Top and Plain Dealing) for tea. They all then rode five miles south for dinner at Plain Dealing, both farms Roosevelt “loved”, then rode on to Pine Knot. The President found Pine Knot “perfectly delightful”, it was “the nicest little place of the kind you could imagine”, but its “real feature” was the piazza Edith had built, where “it was lovely to sit there in the rocking chairs and hear all the birds by daytime and at night the whippoorwills and little forest folk”.
Help preserve Pine Knot!
Send your contributions to:
Pine Knot Foundation
PO Box 213
Keene, VA
22946
CLICK HERE
for a
detailed map!
In the nearby mountains, President Roosevelt shot his first and only wild turkey and made what is regarded as the last reliable sighting of passenger pigeons in the United States. Edith said the children did “the work of the camp, which included hauling the water from the natural spring up a hill more than 100 yards from the house” and the menfolk worked “to fill the pot with game.” On Sunday mornings, the President and Edith braved burrs, briars, and Spanish needles to walk a half-mile across the fields to Christ Church. Dedicated in 1832, Christ Church stands on Glendower Road, a half mile south of Plain Dealing. The Pine Knot cottage, which is on both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, was restored recently. The chimneys have been straightened, the hearth replaced, the outside bridge rebuilt and the cottage stripped and repainted in its original color scheme. A $40,000 grant approved by the Virginia legislature, along with additional fund raising, supported the restoration, which is consistent with the requirements of the historic standards and the conservation easement conveyed by Theodore Roosevelt IV, Pine Knot’s last private owner.
More than $300,000 has been donated by people around the country for to Pine Knot’s preservation since Theodore Roosevelt IV donated Pine Knot’s land and conveyed the conservation easement as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. Pine Knot is now operated locally by a Virginia organization, The Edith and Theodore Roosevelt Pine Knot Foundation. The Foundation is currently focusing on creation of a financial viability model, enhancement of its bird and wildlife habitat, development of educational facilities and the structuring of youth and other programs while preserving the serenity of its pristine natural environment. While Pine Knot as a Presidential retreat is of important historical significance, the land and its view shed also is of special importance, having not only scenic, watershed, and agricultural significance but also special botanical and natural features. The western view from the piazza at Pine Knot looks out on to Green Mountain. President Roosevelt and the renowned nature writer, John Burroughs identified more than 75 different bird species, including one of the rarer warblers, the Bewick’s wren, and the prairie warbler at Pine Knot and many unusual wildflowers adorn its woods.
Pine Knot, referred to by many as the first Camp David, in fact was not used for presidential business and the Roosevelts’ only guest was nature writer John Burroughs. The Roosevelts chose Pine Knot as a result of their relationship with William (“Willie”) and Joseph (“Joe”) Wilmer, brothers who owned two farms in Southern Albemarle County, Plain Dealing and Round Top, respectively. The Wilmer brothers attended the University of Virginia and were second cousins to Dr. William Holland, the President’s consulting ophthalmologist and also a University of Virginia graduate. Pine Knot is located approximately 13 miles south of Charlottesville in southern Albemarle County. Edith and Theodore Roosevelt traveled to North Garden by train from Washington, D.C., then rode by horseback or carriage to Pine Knot. They frequently stopped at Willie Wilmer’s Plain Dealing a farm for dinner, as the trip to Pine Knot was an all day venture, or at Joe Wilmer’s Round Top farm, several miles down the road. When Pine Knot was purchased by Edith Roosevelt in 1905, Plain Dealing farm encompassed Spring Hill and Joe persuaded Willie to offer a piece of the Spring Hill parcel and the Pine Knot cottage, which was unfinished at the time, to the Roosevelts at a nominal price.

Sources:
Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex
Pine Knot Foundation

Pine Knot was purchased by Edith in 1905 as a place for “rest and repairs” for the family to find solitude and pursue both common and separate interests. Between 1905 and 1908, the Roosevelts traveled more than 4 hours by train from Washington D.C. to North Garden, Va., then rode by carriage or on horseback the more than 10 additional miles to Pine Knot.		Not until the day after he learned that Russia and Japan had agreed to accept his formal request that they confer jointly to end the Russo-Japanese War, did President Roosevelt see the property. He remarked in a letter to his son that he was “immensely pleased with Mother’s Virginia cottage and its name”.
On his first trip to Pine Knot, Roosevelt tipped his hat to bystanders at the North Garden train station and announced he was “glad to become a landholder in your community.” He mounted a handsome sorrel stallion and made the picturesque ride along the North Fork of the Hardware River to Round Top where Edith met him and their good friends the Wilmers (who owned Round Top and Plain Dealing) for tea. They all then rode five miles south for dinner at Plain Dealing, both farms Roosevelt “loved”, then rode on to Pine Knot.		The President found Pine Knot “perfectly delightful”, it was “the nicest little place of the kind you could imagine”, but its “real feature” was the piazza Edith had built, where “it was lovely to sit there in the rocking chairs and hear all the birds by daytime and at night the whippoorwills and little forest folk”.
Help preserve Pine Knot! Send your contributions to: Pine Knot Foundation PO Box 213 Keene, VA 22946		CLICK HERE for a detailed map!
In the nearby mountains, President Roosevelt shot his first and only wild turkey and made what is regarded as the last reliable sighting of passenger pigeons in the United States. Edith said the children did “the work of the camp, which included hauling the water from the natural spring up a hill more than 100 yards from the house” and the menfolk worked “to fill the pot with game.” On Sunday mornings, the President and Edith braved burrs, briars, and Spanish needles to walk a half-mile across the fields to Christ Church. Dedicated in 1832, Christ Church stands on Glendower Road, a half mile south of Plain Dealing.		The Pine Knot cottage, which is on both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, was restored recently. The chimneys have been straightened, the hearth replaced, the outside bridge rebuilt and the cottage stripped and repainted in its original color scheme. A $40,000 grant approved by the Virginia legislature, along with additional fund raising, supported the restoration, which is consistent with the requirements of the historic standards and the conservation easement conveyed by Theodore Roosevelt IV, Pine Knot’s last private owner.
More than $300,000 has been donated by people around the country for to Pine Knot’s preservation since Theodore Roosevelt IV donated Pine Knot’s land and conveyed the conservation easement as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. Pine Knot is now operated locally by a Virginia organization, The Edith and Theodore Roosevelt Pine Knot Foundation. The Foundation is currently focusing on creation of a financial viability model, enhancement of its bird and wildlife habitat, development of educational facilities and the structuring of youth and other programs while preserving the serenity of its pristine natural environment.		While Pine Knot as a Presidential retreat is of important historical significance, the land and its view shed also is of special importance, having not only scenic, watershed, and agricultural significance but also special botanical and natural features. The western view from the piazza at Pine Knot looks out on to Green Mountain. President Roosevelt and the renowned nature writer, John Burroughs identified more than 75 different bird species, including one of the rarer warblers, the Bewick’s wren, and the prairie warbler at Pine Knot and many unusual wildflowers adorn its woods.
Pine Knot, referred to by many as the first Camp David, in fact was not used for presidential business and the Roosevelts’ only guest was nature writer John Burroughs. The Roosevelts chose Pine Knot as a result of their relationship with William (“Willie”) and Joseph (“Joe”) Wilmer, brothers who owned two farms in Southern Albemarle County, Plain Dealing and Round Top, respectively. The Wilmer brothers attended the University of Virginia and were second cousins to Dr. William Holland, the President’s consulting ophthalmologist and also a University of Virginia graduate. Pine Knot is located approximately 13 miles south of Charlottesville in southern Albemarle County.		Edith and Theodore Roosevelt traveled to North Garden by train from Washington, D.C., then rode by horseback or carriage to Pine Knot. They frequently stopped at Willie Wilmer’s Plain Dealing a farm for dinner, as the trip to Pine Knot was an all day venture, or at Joe Wilmer’s Round Top farm, several miles down the road. When Pine Knot was purchased by Edith Roosevelt in 1905, Plain Dealing farm encompassed Spring Hill and Joe persuaded Willie to offer a piece of the Spring Hill parcel and the Pine Knot cottage, which was unfinished at the time, to the Roosevelts at a nominal price.