Christ Church

The Christ Church building now standing began as a wood frame, Gothic style building in the 1870s, to replace an earlier church (the third) on the site. By 1902, the church property on the north side of West Main Street - Town Lot 16 - contained multiple wood frame buildings (see Sanborn map picture). The church was closest to the road, with a parish house - a rectory built in 1802 - to the west. The rear yard of the lot contained a dwelling with a wide front porch, and a barn and sheds in the west rear corner of the lot.

Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt was born in 1858 and was the Governor of New York State from 1898 to 1900. Roosevelt served as U.S. Vice President under William McKinley from 1900 to 1901. When McKinley was shot and killed in 1901, Teddy became president. The Roosevelt family attended Christ Church while their summer home, summer White House, or permanent home was nearby. Teddy Roosevelt's first summer at Oyster Bay was in 1874, where his father rented a house. Teddy suffered from asthma and it is said that his worst asthma attacks tended to occur on Saturday evenings; since stress can induce an attack, historians have wondered if Teddy was subconsciously trying to avoid attending a long sermon the following morning at Christ Church.

By the mid-1880s, Teddy was widowed and remarried while building a summer home in Oyster Bay at Sagamore Hill. During the summers of 1902 to 1908, Roosevelt made his home at Sagamore Hill the summer White House. One happy occasion celebrated at Christ Church was the April 4th 1913 wedding of Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, Ethel C., to Dr. Richard Derby. The funeral of the former president is the most famous event at the church and happened on January 8th 1919, two days after his death at Sagamore Hill. Roosevelt was buried in Oyster Bay at Youngs Memorial Cemetery.

Portions of the 1870s wood frame building are still visible within the larger, stone-faced building from the 1920s expansion, including some wood trusses in the nave. A small section of the wooden pews, where the Roosevelt family worshipped, was preserved near the front of the interior space. Stained glass windows were added in the mid-1920s renovations and are said to be based on thise in the French cathedral in Chartres. The interior of the church was renovated once again in the 1990s.

Episcopal Parish in Oyster Bay. History of Christ Church Oyster Bay, Who We Are. Accessed March 31st 2021. https://christchurchoysterbay.org/who-we-are/history.

Louis, J. "TR's Health Draws a Large Crowd." Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot (Oyster Bay, NY) May 7th 2010, Oyster Bay News sec.