President Calvin Coolidge’s hometown and boyhood home of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, has been called the best- preserved presidential site in the nation. Unfortunately, the visitor center is not open year-round (the one and only time I was in the vicinity, the center had not yet opened for the Summer) and the facilities are not really commensurate with the importance of the 30th president. Today, we are accustomed to lavish Presidential Libraries, but the Presidential Library System was not enacted into law before 1955, and Coolidge’s successor, Herbert Hoover, was the earliest president whose life and career was represented by such a facility.
It is therefore with some excitement that I note the start of construction of The President Calvin Coolidge Museum and Education Center which will provide to visitors and scholars alike a state-of-the-art facility that will be accessible year-round (so, no more excuses on my next visit). Visit the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation website for more detail (and to see, albeit on a tiny screen, an excellent video about president Coolidge).
