Theodore D. Roosevelt (1858-1919), who was also called "T.R.", became the 26th and the youngest President (at age 42) in 1901 after William McKinley’s assassination. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the Bull Moose Party, as well as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier. T.R.’s world policies were characterized by his comment, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". He completed the Panama Canal, sent out the Great White Fleet to display American power, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. T.R. first came to Oyster Bay, Long Island on summer vacations in the 1870s. In his early 20s, he purchased farmland in Cove Neck, a peninsula just east of Oyster Bay village. He hired NYC architects Lamb and Rich to design the house, and construction based on their Queen Anne-style sketches began in 1884, but it was nearly halted due to the sudden death of Roosevelt's young wife Alice in February 1884 who died after giving birth their daughter, also named Alice. In 1886 Roosevelt married Edith Kermit Carow, a friend of his sister. After their marriage in 1886, T.R. and Edith took up residency at Sagamore Hill in 1887. They raised 6 children there and, over the next 30 years, including 7 summers when it served as the Summer White House, from 1902 until 1908. Teddy died at Sagamore Hill on January 6, 1919 at the age of 60. Edith died there in 1948 at the age of 87.