The land had long been a working farm, and when Theodore Roosevelt bought the property in 1880 it already had an orchard, fields of corn, asparagus, and buckwheat, and an old barn. After buying it, Roosevelt reshaped the farm according to his own ideas, clearing about 47 acres, including pastures. With a garden, fields, orchard, pigs, cows, horses, and chickens, the farm needed a full-time farm manager and several full- and part-time farm hands. The Roosevelt family also shared in the work: Edith kept the farm books, the children tended their garden sections, pulled weeds, and brought in the milk, and Roosevelt enjoyed working during haying time.
