Venue: Derby-Hall Bandstand
Town: New York, US

Derby-Hall Bandstand is a replica of the bandstand which stood on this site in Oyster Bay, New York, United States, and was used by President Theodore Roosevelt and others to give public speeches. The original bandstand was taken down in the 1930s and replaced by a replica in 1981. The location is a featured site on the Oyster Bay History Walk audio walking tour. The original Derby-Hall Bandstand was used by President Theodore Roosevelt and others to give public speeches. The construction was taken down in the 1930s, and in 1981 a replica took its place to serve as a new platform for public speakers and a gathering place in the heart of the village. Originally it was to be dedicated solely to the memory of Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Ethel Roosevelt Derby. Her godson, Oyster Bay native Leonard Wood Hall, a New York Congressman who also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee during the 1950s, was the principal organizer of the efforts to build the bandstand in her name. When he, too, died before it was completed, it was dedicated to both of them. The view from the bandstand shows two buildings which are almost mirror images; Town Hall and the U.S. Post Office. Old-timers may remember when the site of Town Hall East used to be the Lyric Theatre, where generations of Oyster Bay residents fell in love with the movies. Three cannons surround the bandstand, each with a unique history. The cannon facing Town Hall has on its base a tablet, cast from metal recovered from the wreckage of the USS Maine, which was destroyed in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. Two hundred and sixty six men lost their lives when more than live tons of powder charges exploded completely destroying the forward third of the ship. Although most historians now agree that the explosion was accidental, tensions in the aftermath of the disaster contributed to America's decision to begin the Spanish-American War of 1898. The cannon itself is a Civil War era Dahlgren gun, named for it