Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Happy birthday to our grandson, Sam!  
We had a great day yesterday, by traveling north on the Scenic Byway 100 to Calvin Coolidge's boyhood home and the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch.  This was so interesting that we spent 5 hours there!  It is classified as the most complete and original of all presidential childhood homes.  I don't know that much about Pres. Coolidge, but when we have better internet, I'll do more reading about him. He was a humble, but intelligent person, and a very hard worker.  He was much influenced by his father, who taught him to be self-reliant and he told his son, to 'make do, or do without'.  His mother passed away when he was 12 years old.  He was active in government in Massachusetts and was later pegged to be Pres. Harding's Vice President.  It was August 3, 1923, that word arrived in Plymouth Notch that Pres. Harding had passed away suddenly, and at 2:47 a.m., the elder Coolidge administered the presidential oath to his son.  Some years later, an inquisitive visitor asked Colonel Coolidge how he knew that he could perform such an act, and he replied with, 'I didn't know that I couldn't'!  He was a notary public and felt obligated to install the new president immediately.

This is the house where Calvin Coolidge was born, and it was attached to the general store, that his father owned and operated. He was born on July 4, 1872, and they lived here until 1875, when they moved across the street to what is now called the Coolidge Homestead.

The Coolidge Homestead was built in the typical New England architecture, whereas the house and farm buildings were all attached.  The Coolidge's kept their horses and pigs in the barn portion, the hay and seeds were stored in the loft, and the warmth from the animals helped to heat the buildings.

In the wintertime, they put their wagons away, and would pack the snow down with a huge roller type machinery, and they would use sleighs for traversing about on the thickly packed roads.

This is a photo that I took of a photo.  When Pres. Coolidge spent the summer of 1924 in Vermont, he used Coolidge Hall for his Summer White House Retreat.  This large vaulted room was above the general store that was owned by his father.  Otherwise this room was used for weekly dances and family reunions.  The hall has its original furnishings including tables made especially for the President and the instruments of the 'Plymouth Old-Time Dance Orchestra'.  We learned on this tour that President Coolidge positioned his Summer White House in Wisconsin in 1928 on the Brule River in northern Wisconsin. He wanted some place where he could spend some leisure time fishing.  You can bet that we will see if that lodge/resort is still in operation and make a visit!

This is the Summer White House in Plymouth Notch above the general store.  It is very much the same today as it was in 1924.

President Coolidge died suddenly on January 5, 1933 and was buried in the Plymouth Cemetery.  The serenity of the village and surrounding mountains is appropriately reflected in the simple granite headstone that marks the President's grave.  His is the second one from the right. Visitors are surprised that a president should be buried in such plain surroundings, but when Coolidge left the White House, he said, "We draw our Presidents from the people.....I came from them.  I wish to be one of them again."

We were so impressed with how complete the furnishing, clothing, and the buildings were. They have a new visitor center that plays a video of his life and has the First Lady's clothing on exhibit.  They even had a 'Tumbling Blocks' quilt that Calvin Coolidge hand pieced by himself when we was 10 years old.  It was still on his bed. I took a picture of it, but it was through a plexiglass and it didn't turn out.  This was a day well spent.