Theodore Roosevelt Association - History

History

The organization was founded in 1919 by friends and supporters of the president originally as the Permanent Memorial National Committee. Soon renamed the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA), it was chartered under Title 36 of the United States Code in 1920.

In parallel with the RMA was an organization for women, The Women's Theodore Roosevelt Association that had been founded in 1919 by an act of the New York State Assembly. Both organizations merged in 1956 under the current name.

The two ancestor organizations that eventually combined to form the modern Association established four public sites: the reconstructed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York City, dedicated in 1923 and donated to the National Park Service in 1963; Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, dedicated in 1928 and given to the people of Oyster Bay; Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac in Washington, D.C., given to the federal government in 1932; and Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt's Oyster Bay home, which opened to the public in 1953 and, together with nearby Old Orchard, home to Theodore Roosevelt Jr., was donated to the National Park Service in 1963. Along with the 1963 gifts of the Birthplace and Sagamore Hill properties, the TRA donated an endowment to help support both parks sites. The TRA currently owns Theodore Roosevelt's simple cabin, "Pine Knot", near Charlottesville, VA, which is managed by The Edith and Theodore Roosevelt Pine Knot Foundation.