It was already 2:15pm by the time Vicki had driven the 68 miles from Rochester to the small resort town of Skaneateles, New York in the afternoon of August 7, 2026. Fortunately, at least for Tom and me, we had left the rain behind during the one-hour, twenty-minute excursion which brought the three of us to the Northern shore of the New York Finger Lake known as Skaneateles Lake.
Once in town, it was up to our trusty Siri GPS to guide us South along West Lake Street to a huge mansion known as Roosevelt Hall. While that name had Presidential site written all over it, the place was not owned by Theodore or Franklin Roosevelt. So why in the heck fire did we drive so far out of the way to see it?
Roosevelt Hall was built in 1839 for retired engineer Richard Lawrence DeZeng, who aptly called his new digs ‘Lake Home’. After DeZeng passed away nine years later, the home fell into the hands of several owners, including Anson H. Lapham, who was the uncle of New York State Senator Nathan Lapham and a cousin to Susan B. Anthony., who frequently visited the mansion with fellow suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Changing owners several more times, and being renamed ‘Lakota’ in 1892, the large mansion was purchased by artist Samuel Montgomery Roosevelt in 1899 – who designated his new home ‘Roosevelt Hall’. Samuel, who resided primarily in New York City, was the second cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt and used the Finger Lakes mansion as his Summer residence.
In 1915, likely during the final week or so of his high-profile libel trial in Syracuse, Theodore Roosevelt visited his cousin Samuel in Skaneateles and stayed at Roosevelt Hall for a few days.
When Samuel Roosevelt died in 1920, he left the estate to his nephew Col. Henry Latrobe “Harry” Roosevelt, who owned the mansion until his death in 1936. During Harry’s ownership, Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the mansion – first in 1930 with Eleanor and son John while serving as New York’s Governor, and again in 1932 during his Presidential campaign. The place stayed in the Roosevelt family until 1944.
Reportedly, Robert F. Kennedy considered buying Roosevelt Hall when he was running for the United States Senate in 1964, but that never happened. Instead, the place changed hands two more times before the current owners, Mary and Peter Drescher, purchased the mansion in 2007 and have continued to use it as their Summer residence since.
The first two things Tom and I noticed upon our arrival at Roosevelt Hall was the historic mansion sat high above the road on a steep hill, and the owners appeared to be home; which meant the two of us weren’t getting very close to the place. At one point, however, my photographer contemplated walking onto the grounds to get a closer look, but the steepness of the landscaping combined with his poor knees and mobility issues prevented that from happening. Instead, my cameraman held me up and I did my best to pose with Roosevelt Hall in the background.
When Tom and I returned to the Jeep after our brief photo-op in front of Roosevelt Hall, I questioned my photographer’s decision to travel thirty or forty miles off the beaten path to see a place we couldn’t get very close to. But my wily old friend had another card up his sleeve. It turned out there was a restaurant within a mile of the mansion; and that eatery had hosted several Presidents and their wives in the past – including both Roosevelts. Or was that simply an urban legend?
Roughly five minutes after we left the vicinity of Roosevelt Hall, my photographer’s wife had the Jeep parked on the North side of West Genesee Street and almost directly across from the historic restaurant known as The Krebs.
The Krebs was built between 1830 to 1845; owners Fred and Cora Krebs opened the building as a restaurant in the Summer of 1899, initially serving meals out of their Summer cottage. But did the Roosevelt’s actually dine there during their visits to Skaneateles?
While Theodore did visit his second cousin at Roosevelt Hall in 1915, there is no official record of Teddy ever sitting down for a meal at the restaurant.
And when it came to the other Roosevelt, FDR did not dine inside The Krebs either – even though his wife, Eleanor, did. In August 1932, while serving as the First Lady of New York, Eleanor visited the lakeside village alongside her friend Ethel Bellinger and the two women, along with Mrs. Roosevelt’s bodyguard, ate dinner at The Krebs. As for Franklin – it was reported FDR’s friend and restaurant owner Fred Krebs waved at the President from the building’s porch as Roosevelt rode past in his car. I suppose that was close enough to call The Krebs a Presidential site.
Before Eleanor Roosevelt ‘broke bread’ at The Krebs, another First Lady dined there as well. In the Summer of 1923, roughly two decades after President Benjamin Harrison had died, First Lady Mary Lord Dimmick Harrison arrived in Skaneateles during a vacation to visit her daughter’s family. During Mary’s week-long stay, the former First Lady ate regular lunches and dinners at The Krebs.
I was confused – I knew two First Lady’s had dined at The Krebs, but I thought the place was a Presidential site. Well, come to find out, it was – but not because of either Roosevelt. It turned out President Bill Clinton had dinner at the restaurant with his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea in late August of 1999 while the Clinton’s were vacationing in Skaneateles to lay the groundwork for the former First Lady’s U.S. Senate campaign.
Since Bill Clinton had dined at The Krebs, did that mean Tom, Vicki, and I would eat there as well? Not a chance – and that was only because the historic restaurant didn’t open until five o’clock. Instead, my photographer had me pose for a few images in front of the eatery – and I also stood on the porch where I envisioned FDR riding past in his car. Thankfully, the top was up on Roosevelt’s convertible as it began to rain once again during our visit. Was that a surprise? No – it was the darn Curse of the Titanic rearing its ugly head again.
Even though Tom and I were in front of The Krebs for less than ten minutes, the two of us got fairly wet in the light but steady drizzle. The funny thing was – I hadn’t completely dried after posing in downtown Rochester. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the rain clouds were following us no matter where we went. Hopefully that system wouldn’t head up to our final stops of the day in Syracuse.
It was about ten minutes before three o’clock when we left Skaneateles in the rear-view mirror as we began the short trek to the North. And since we were ahead of schedule, Tom decided to go off script from his agenda and take his wife and me to Fayetteville, New York before doubling back to Syracuse to finish out our day.
There was a method to his madness. It turned out the Fayetteville Free Library had a very historical artifact on display and my photographer was determined to see it. The artifact was the wooden sled used by Grover Cleveland during his youth in the 1850s while he delivered groceries and supplies from McVicar’s General Store. During our trip in 2017, the three of us had stopped at the library in Fayetteville to see the sled, but it wasn’t there. We were told the historic sled was on loan to a museum in Albany, and if we wanted to see it, we would have to come back in the future. Well, the future was now.
Traffic was unusually slow-moving on the route North towards Fayetteville. In fact, at one point, Vicki got behind a line of vehicles in an endless, winding ‘No Passing’ zone. Those vehicles were traveling close to ten miles per hour under the speed limit and I listened as she began to verbally assault the drivers in front of her. When she finally reached the freeway and had the chance to pass each of them one by one, I nearly fell out of my camera case in laughter as I watched my photographer’s wife stick out her tongue and salute each vehicle with a one-finger gesture.
After Vicki once again drove our Jeep out from beneath the rain system that had plagued us the entire day, the three of us arrived at the public library in the small village of Fayetteville, New York at roughly 3:30pm. I was surprised by the number of people who were inside the large building, most of whom appeared to be there to socialize with their friends or were folks with special needs who were there to occupy their time. I was surprised as none of the locals appeared to be interested whatsoever in the historic wooden sled, and that was just fine with my photographer and me.
Tom wasted no time in placing me on top of the large, clear display case that protected Grover Cleveland’s historic sled. Although I had envisioned Grover’s sled to resemble the Alphorn brand sled that my photographer still owned from his childhood in the 1960s, it was far more simplistic, rustic and smaller than Tom’s sleigh from yesteryear.
For the most part, the future President’s sled was not used to slide down hills. Instead, the teenager used the all-wooden 24-inch by 36-inch sled to haul groceries and run errands all around Fayetteville during the late 1840s and into the 1850s while he worked at McVicar’s General Store. Lost to history for many years, the sled was discovered stored in the cellar of the store owner’s home, which later was converted into the Fayetteville Free Library.
When Tom carried me through the corridors of the library and back out to the Jeep, I figured our time in Fayetteville had come to an end and we would begin the short drive to Syracuse. After all, during our visit to the small town in 2017, the three of us saw Grover Cleveland’s childhood home, as well as the building that once played host to McVicar’s General Store where Grover worked as a teenager.
“Since we’re only a couple of blocks from Grover Cleveland’s boyhood home, I can’t leave town without seeing it again,” said my photographer to his wife, who was not surprised in the least by Tom’s request.
Before Vicki could say, “How many times do you have to visit the same site”, I found myself standing in front of the two-story home on Academy Street, which was built in 1841 for Reverend Richard Folly Cleveleand, the future President’s father and Presbyterian minister who held sermons in the home’s basement. Grover Cleveland lived in the home in front of me from the age of four until he was 13 years old, which was when his father moved the family out of Fayetteville and took them nearly 35 miles East to the village of Clinton, New York.
As I posed for several images in front of the home and near the side yard, I envisioned the energetic and fun-loving burly youngster as he played with his siblings in the yard and played pranks on his neighbors. Grover was also a very responsible lad – never shirking his duties of chopping wood, cultivating the garden, or babysitting for his younger siblings. In an essay Cleveland wrote as a nine-year-old, he declared, “If we expect to become great and good men and be respected and esteemed by our friends, we must improve our time when we are young.” Grover pointed to George Washington and Andrew Jackson as ideal role models of that guiding principle.
By the time Tom and I were finished at Grover Cleveland’s childhood home, it was already a handful of minutes past four o’clock and my photographer was still insistent on us visiting the four sites in Syracuse before dinner. And the funny thing was – Vicki didn’t bat an eye; which was likely due to the fact her husband promised a stop at a Triple D place for dinner when we had finished.
Roughly fifteen minutes after we left the small village of Fayetteville behind, we were smack-dab in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Syracuse, New York – right around the time folks were getting out of work. Usually, parking is an issue in big cities, but that wasn’t the case for our first stop as Vicki found an open spot along South Warren Street directly across from Hotel Syracuse, now known as the Marriott Syracuse Downtown Hotel.
Hotel Syracuse opened its doors in 1924 as one of the grandest hotels in Upstate New York – and over the years, it has played host to a number of incredible guests; including Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.
On July 28, 1927, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh attended a formal dinner and stayed at the hotel after talking about his historic Trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis at Syracuse University’s Archbold Stadium. Lindbergh’s appearance was during his national tour to help promote commercial aviation.
On October 9, 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed at Hotel Syracuse to celebrate John’s 31st birthday after attending the opening of Yoko’s art exhibit down the street. Inside a hotel room, Lennon hosted an impromptu party and jam session with famous friends, including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Phil Spector, Allen Ginsberg, and Klaus Voormann. Ringo famously kept the beat by playing on a wastebasket while the group performed over 20 songs. Two days after John and Yoko’s stay at the hotel, Lennon’s most-famous solo song, Imagine, was released as a single in the United States.
But Tom and I hadn’t made the pilgrimage to Hotel Syracuse because of John and Yoko. Instead, we were there because of the Presidents who visited the grand hotel. As I looked up at the majestic building in front of me, hoping my photographer would take me inside, a tune popped into my resin mind.
“Imagine JFK and Jimmy, it’s easy if you do. Maybe Ike and Nixon, and Slick Willy, too. Imagine all those people, staying in Syracuse. You may say I’m a dreamer, dreaming of those famous men. I hope someday you’ll join me, and see their legacies rise again.”
After I had posed for a handful of photos near the exterior of Hotel Syracuse, Tom carried me through the front doors and into the massive lobby. Once there, we quickly found the Persian Terrace Ballroom on the first floor. The two of us were not sure, and neither was the staff, as to whether or not this was the ballroom where JFK spoke during a campaign stop on September 29, 1960. But it didn’t matter much to us, as there was a chance it was. As I stood and posed inside the Persian Terrace, it was as though I could hear John F. Kennedy’s iconic Boston accent still echoing off the marble furnishings.
The 43-year-old Kennedy began his speech at the hotel by mentioning a baseball player instead of his Republican opponent Richard Nixon. JFK said, “I read in this morning’s newspaper a story that a great hero of my own hometown, Ted Williams, was retiring. And I was also interested to read that he was too old at 42. Maybe experience isn’t enough. I come here tonight to ask the support of the people of New York in November.”
While our visit inside Hotel Syracuse lasted less than 15 minutes, and our primary focus was John F. Kennedy’s address there, I couldn’t help but think about Jimmy Carter and his unexpected stay at the hotel on September 27, 1985. As a former President, Carter stayed overnight at the hotel when Hurricane Gloria forced his flight to land unexpectedly in Syracuse while he was en route to Maine. During this stay, he famously went for a jog in the rain wearing only a bathrobe and sneakers. I bet that was a sight for sore eyes!
After posing in the possible ballroom where JFK delivered a campaign speech on September 29, 1960, our next stop in Syracuse was scheduled to be the site where Kennedy addressed a huge crowd in Clinton Square on that same day.
Clinton Square was located roughly five blocks North of Hotel Syracuse, and once again, Vicki had no issues finding a parking spot along the street – although this time my photographer would be forced to make a fairly long hike to get me near the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument where JFK delivered his speech.
Once my camera guy had made the long, exhausting walk into Clinton Square, he used a historical photo as a reference as to where Senator Kennedy stood during his campaign address. At one point, when Tom placed me on the monument, it was as though I could see and feel the “tumultuous” and “riotous” welcome the estimated crowd of 8,000 people gave JFK.
During his speech, Kennedy stated that he ran in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and warned that the cause of freedom was in serious trouble. As I stood silently on the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument posing for my photographer, I noticed several individuals of questionable character were headed towards the two of us and I worried our personal freedom was in serious jeopardy as well. I couldn’t help but wonder if the Curse of the Titanic had showed up at Clinton Square. Thankfully, nothing happened and it quickly became obvious I worry too much about nothing – especially alleged curses.
Although Hotel Syracuse and Clinton Square were very cool sites as each had a JFK connection, which is always near and dear to my resin heart, I knew the last two stops of the day would be very special as well – especially after I heard Tom tell his wife that both sites had Theodore Roosevelt connections from 1915.
The first of the two Roosevelt sites took us about six blocks from Clinton Square where Vicki found ample parking in front of the Onondaga Supreme and County Courts House. Once there, I stood with my photographer in front of a four-story, granite block building where people in the area usually go when they’re in trouble. At first, I wondered if my past “illegal activities” had come back to haunt me; or perhaps Vicki would have to explain her earlier one finger salute.
The courthouse in front of me was built between 1904 and 1906 in downtown Syracuse. Nine years later, the building became the epicenter of the famous William Barnes vs. Theodore Roosevelt libel trial where the former President was being sued by Barnes, the New York State Republican Party Chairman who was accused of corruption by TR.
The trial began on April 19, 1915 and took five weeks to complete. In the case of libel, a defendant must prove his innocence; in other words, Roosevelt was required to demonstrate that he had not intentionally imparted a malicious public falsehood about Barnes.
During the trial, Roosevelt testified for eight days. Rather than TR arguing that he had made a slip of the tongue or had misspoken, or had been misquoted or taken out of context, or that what he had said was merely campaign rhetoric not meant to be taken literally, the Bull Moose Roosevelt argued that what he had said about Barnes was true.
Two weeks into the trial, Roosevelt contacted Franklin D. Roosevelt for assistance. Franklin, then serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was a former member of the State Senate and testified on Theodore Roosevelt’s behalf.
The jury took several ballots over two days and returned a verdict of acquittal for TR. After the trial, it was revealed that until the last ballot, the jury consistently voted 11 to 1 for acquittal, with a lone juror arguing that trial costs ought to be divided between Barnes and Roosevelt.
Due to the notoriety Roosevelt gained at the trial, TR reclaimed a measure of his status as a national political figure. So much so, in fact, that in 1916 he declined a Progressive Presidential nomination. At the time of Roosevelt’s death at the age of 60 on January 6, 1919, TR’s status had been restored to the point that he was the leading contender for the Republican nomination in the 1920 Presidential election – which was ultimately won by Warren G. Harding. Had Roosevelt, our 26th President, been healthier and lived longer, he just might have been elected as our 29th President – which just might have given Donald Trump something to aim for.
During our ten-minute photoshoot in front of the historic courthouse, Tom placed me on a section of the rusticated granite base that connected with the stone balustrades – all of which could be seen prominently in my camera guy’s historical images from the 1915 trial. As I silently stood there, Theodore Roosevelt came to life before my eyes. I watched as TR walked past me, doffing his hat to the photographers and curious on lookers who had gathered near the front steps of the building to get a glimpse of the former President now on trial. Roosevelt appeared steadfast, confident, and he had the eye of the tiger behind his wire-rimmed glasses.
For most every weekday for five weeks beginning on April 19, 1915, Theodore Roosevelt’s time was spent at the Onondaga County Courthouse as he defended false accusations against him. But where did TR stay during that time? The answer to that question was located only a mile away and was the next intended target on my photographer’s agenda.
Vicki was somewhat excited when she saw our last site of the day was taking us onto the campus of Syracuse University. Over the years, ‘The Vickster’ has always enjoyed our visits to college campuses, and this time was no different. But as soon as the historic Horace Wilkinson House came into view, her jaw dropped when she saw the unique architecture of the mansion – even though the place looked to be in an unfinished state of renovation. In fact, the vacant place reminded Tom and me of a blend between the Delta Tau Chi fraternity house in the movie Animal House and the house where the Addams Family lived on TV.
Built in 1905 for business tycoon Horace Wilkinson, the mansion became the temporary residence of Theodore Roosevelt for over a month during his 1915 libel trial. In the mid-twentieth century, following Wilkinson’s death in 1937, the mansion was transformed into a fraternity house that boasted 12,132 square feet of space and 29 bedrooms. Since the early 1990s, Wilkinson’s former mansion has been home to Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
With no one around to stop us, the three of us wandered into the front yard of the massive structure where we walked past an old, dilapidated couch and a lot of construction material. Then upon closer inspection, when Tom carried me up to the building and placed me on the 120-year-old balustrade, I noticed what appeared to be a tiki bar situated on the front porch. The only things missing during our visit was a naked mannequin getting thrown into the front yard and someone yelling ‘Toga, Toga, Toga’ at the top of their lungs. In fact, I waited for Otis Day and the Knights to start belting out their rendition of ‘Shout’ and ‘Shama Lama Ding Dong’.
As rustic and rundown the Horace Wilkinson House seemed to be on the day of our visit, it didn’t matter one bit to my photographer and me. The mansion had tons of character. To the two of us, this was where President Theodore Roosevelt ate, drank, slept, and hung his hat for over a month in 1915 – which was nearly 25 years before the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
The three of us were thankful there was no one else on the property during our visit; or at least no one we saw. One thing was for certain – I would’ve sacrificed my right arm again for the chance to walk the hallways of the mansion and pose in some of the rooms – but only during the day. As historic as the Horace Wilkinson House was, there was no chance I would get close to it at night.
We had spent roughly 30 minutes on the grounds of the historic Horace Wilkinson House and the clock on the Jeep’s dashboard was ticking past 5:30pm when we finished – and that meant one thing. No, not a road trip to the local Food King supermarket to stock up on some goods for a toga party.
Instead, Tom wanted to treat his wife to a little Guy Fieri Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives magic in Syracuse; and there was no better place than Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub.
Although the three of us were traveling in a red velvet Jeep Grand Cherokee L and not the cherry-red 1968 Chevrolet Camaro SS convertible that Guy Fieri usually drives on his Food Network hit show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, it still felt as though we were riding in style to Flavortown after we made the nearly three-mile journey from Syracuse University to Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub. The first thing we learned upon arrival, however, was parking our Jeep in the same spot alongside the pub where Fieri had parked his Camaro was not going to happen – at least not at six o’clock in the evening.
After we made the two-block walk from where we found parking on Walton Street, our next hurdle came just inside the front entrance to the pub when the hostess axed Vicki if we had reservations. Since we didn’t, the middle-aged woman led us to a corner table-for-two near the bar. While the place was packed with patrons, and was loud enough to wake the dead, the table was perfect for Tom and Vic’s needs.
Usually whenever we visit a Triple D place, Tom orders the same food Guy Fieri ate during the taping of his show. But since the ‘Food Guru’ had Irish Meatloaf during his 2012 visit and lamb sliders with goat cheese on his return trip in 2025, my photographer and his wife both opted for the Irish fish and chips instead. And I have to admit, when their meals arrived at the table, my painted eyes nearly fell out of my resin head when I saw the size of the single piece of fried haddock on Tom’s plate.
My photographer managed to eat his entire piece of haddock, but Tom hardly touched his French fries and Coleslaw – primarily because the fat bastard doesn’t eat as much since he began his dosage of prescription fat pills on July 1st. And that was okay; I don’t want to stop traveling just because my camera guy is too fat to waddle his fat rear around to Presidential sites. I need a guy who’s a lean, mean, picture-taking machine and not someone who resembles the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
By the time we hiked back to the Jeep, then made the five-mile drive to the Comfort Inn & Suites, it was after eight o’clock by the time my companions had registered and transported their luggage and me to their room. It had been a long day and was likely the most grueling day both Tom and Vicki would endure on the entire trip. We visited a total of 19 sites from Buffalo to Syracuse and had dodged raindrops most of the day. Tom promised his wife that the following day, which was Saturday, would be a lot more laid back and relaxing. I thought to myself, “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Tom had placed me alongside the television set where the two of us attempted to watch some of the movie ‘Rudy’ – that idea lasted about 20 minutes before my photographer extinguished the lights and our room was bathed in total darkness.
Left alone with my thoughts, which were interrupted several times by loud snoring from both beds, it’s a time when I usually think about the Presidential sites I had visited earlier in the day. But that night was different. My focus was solely on the two Titanic victims we had visited – Edward Kent in Buffalo and Stanley Fox in Rochester.
Over and over, I saw the luxury liner in its final moments after striking the iceberg as the remaining passengers and crewmen were about to face their fate. In my mind’s eye, it was as though I could see both Kent and Fox, strapped into the lifejackets, as the icy water of the North Atlantic swept them away while Titanic vanished from beneath them. Oh, they yelled for help as they bobbed helplessly in the water – hoping one of the half-filled lifeboats would return to rescue them. Help never came until it was too late.
Thus far on our ‘Trip of Dreams’, which was less than 36 hours old, the three of us have faced what Tom has dubbed ‘The Curse of the Titanic’. At first, I agreed with my photographer – after all, he cut his arm open on a light switch, and we’ve faced nearly non-stop rain during our entire time in New York State.
But now we were dry, comfortable, safe, and about to head to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the morning. That doesn’t sound like a curse to me. In fact, I believe the worst was behind us, and it’ll be clear sailing going forward.
Or will it?
