November 30, 2025 – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and lifelong Long Islander, Bill Bleyer, joins us in the time machine to walk the streets of Gotham past with his book, “The Roosevelts in New York City.” Among his previous books is “Sagamore Hill: Theodore Roosevelt’s Summer White House.”
The Roosevelts story in America began with Nicholas Roosevelt, a farmer who arrived four centuries ago and planted the seeds of a distinguished and impactful family ― one with ties to many places in New York City. On East 20th St. stands a recreation of the brownstone where President Theodore Roosevelt was born and developed his love of nature. The twin brownstone next door was where his uncle, Robert Roosevelt, instilled in the future president an interest in conservation, while having multiple affairs and even starting a second secret family with a mistress.
The double townhouse on East 65th Street built by Sara Delano Roosevelt still stands, built so that her son, President Franklin Roosevelt, would have a suitable place to raise his family. It also allowed her, as Bill Bleyer says, to keep him tied to her apron strings while she meddled in their lives. Her daughter-in-law — TR’s niece, Eleanor Roosevelt — was driven to tears by having to live in a home that was not her own.
Bill Bleyer details the unique places in the city where family members lived and worked and unveils the private interactions behind this famous American family.
For more interviews on the Roosevelts:
- David Pietrusza – 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents”
- David Pietrusza – Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal
- Michael Patrick Cullinane – Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of his Contemporaries
- Michael Patrick Cullinane – Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon
- Winston Groom – The Allies: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II
- David Pietrusza – TR’s Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy
- Tim Brady – His Father’s Son: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt, Jr.
- John J. Miller – The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football
- Kermit Roosevelt – Allegiance
- David Pietrusza – 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR
Podcast: Download (Duration: 43:16 — 49.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More