The Coolidge Homestead is an important component of the activities of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. It is also the centerpiece of the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth. The house was the setting for many significant events that affected the life and times of Calvin Coolidge. He moved there when he was four.

The character of young Coolidge was formed in this house. The shyness that followed him over the years became apparent. He would enter the house after completing a chore and, upon hearing the voices in the kitchen, would immediately dread having to meet people and engage in conversation. Wrenching sadness entered Calvin’s life at 12, when his mother, Victoria Josephine Moor, age 39, died in March of 1885. Calvin, his father, Col. John Coolidge, and sister Abigail were at her bedside. "The greatest grief that can come to a boy came to me. Life was never to seem the same again."¹

On March 6, 1890, at the Homestead, while Calvin was at Black River Academy in Ludlow, his sister, Abigail, 14, also died. "I am having a very good time this spring but will be glad when I can go home and be with you. It is lonesome here without Abbie."² In 1924 the Homestead again became a place of sorrow when Calvin, Jr., 16, who died of a blood blister on July 7, from a tennis game on the White House lawn, was brought home to rest in the cemetery at the foot of the hill. "When he went the power and the glory of the Presidency went with him."³ Col. John lived here until he died March 18, 1926 at the age of 80. "For my personal contact with him during his last months I had to resort to the poor substitute of the telephone. When I reached home he was gone. It costs a great deal to be President." ⁴

It should be noted here, that after the death of Col. John, the housekeeper, Aurora Pierce, stayed on in the house for another 30 years. She watched the place like a hawk, charged a small admission for tourists to see the inside, and kept the interior looking as it did in 1923. When she became ill and was taken out of the Homestead, she asked her friends to make sure the door was locked. Some of us believe that her spirit still lives in the home.

But the Homestead was also the place where many happy occasions took place. The feeling of a close family was fostered here. Calvin belonged here and performed many of the duties young men on a farm were required to do. Everyone one depended on everyone else and there was always a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. This was the place that launched Calvin Coolidge towards a career of public service. But always in the back of his mind was the vision of wooded hills, green pastures, the quiet of a summer evening, distant views and, most of all, the people.
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Calvin Coolidge and his family had just left from a visit to the Homestead in July, 1920, when he was notified of his nomination by the Republican Party for the vice presidency. Then on August 3, 1923, at 2:47 am, after the death of Warren Harding in California, Calvin’s father, as a notary public, swore his son in as the 30th President of the United States. It was also in the parlor of the Homestead that Col. John Coolidge heard his son, via the radio, take the oath of office when Calvin was elected as president in 1924. The Homestead saw many dignitaries walk up the steps to pay their respects to President Coolidge. Calvin’s family always enjoyed their summer visits at this simple but welcoming home.

After President Coolidge retired from politics, he built an addition to the Homestead in 1931. This was moved to the hills behind the Homestead in 1956. It was this year that John Coolidge, the presidents remaining son, and his wife, Florence, gave the house to the State of Vermont. Lady Bird Johnson visited the Homestead in 1967 and dedicated a plaque, located on the front lawn, indicating that this was a National Historic Landmark.

In 1995, Lady Bird Johnson made another journey to Plymouth Notch and the Homestead. Members of the Coolidge Foundation, along with John and Florence Coolidge, met her at the Homestead. A print of the Notch, signed by John Coolidge, was presented to her. As Lady Bird looked over our heads to the sight of the front porch of the Homestead, she remarked: "If only the American people could see the birthplaces of their presidents, they would understand them better."

Then in 1998, the Homestead enjoyed a great deal of attention with the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Homestead Inaugural. Governor Howard Dean declared 1998 The Year of Calvin Coolidge in the State of Vermont.

There were four days of activities, two days of symposia at the JFK Library in Boston, and then two days at Plymouth Notch. The reenactment of the inaugural was the crowning event. It was reenacted the next day, August 3, and at the exact time, 2:47 am, with members of the Coolidge family, relatives of the people who were also in the sitting room in 1923, and townspeople peering through the windows. Old cars were scattered around the area.

Unlike 1923, there were television cameras and photographers present. An outside monitor enabled the assembled crowd to hear what was being replayed in the parlor. The sitting room looked exactly as it did in that evening in 1923. The Homestead was again embracing the Coolidge family.
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In September, 1999, the whole nation saw the Homestead. The C-Span series on the American Presidency came to Plymouth Notch. This is where the live call-in portion on Calvin Coolidge was filmed.

The summer of 2000 has seen an "off the charts" visitation to the State Historic Site and this means the Homestead, too. The Homestead stands proud and dignified to everyone who enters. The Coolidge Foundation is fortunate to be located just across the street, in the basement of the church. Trustees, staff and members see the Homestead at all times of the year. It is a standout in any season.

Notes
^{1, 3, 4} The Autobiography, by Calvin Coolidge, pages, 190, 191-92
² Your Son, Calvin Coolidge, Selected Letters from Calvin Coolidge to his Father, Edited by Edward Connery Latham, page 10 (Abbie also attended the Academy.)

This introduction to The Coolidge Homestead was composed by Mimi Baird, ©2000.