Post Office employment and Calvin Coolidge

North Clarendon, Vermont
Iroquois Land Family Campground

Today we drove over to Plymouth Notch to visit the State Historic Site of President Calvin Coolidge.  Knowing that this wasn't a national site, I didn't think it would be much more than a house and maybe a monument.

The drive took us through Killington and the Pico ski area. The scenery was beautiful and there was no traffic at all.

Our timing was perfect once again.  We had just enough time to watch the video before the next tour began.  This video was played in a large room with rocking chairs and couches.  

I looked at the brochure that we were handed when we entered the welcome center.  

The village's 14 buildings are unchanged and preserved with many original furnishings.  

Our tour began at the 1850's Florence Cilley General Store. 
John Coolidge, the President's father, was the storekeeper in 1868 and purchased the the store in 1875.  

I thought you'd appreciate the price of gas--one cent for gas, three cents for tax.

Calvin Coolidge was born in the house that was attached to the general store on July 4, 1872.   The bed and all the furnishing are original.  

We missed touring the Coolidge Hall that was used for the Grange dances.  It was above the general store.

Four years later the family moved across the street to the Coolidge homestead.  





Notice the barn is attached to the house.

Coolidge along with his mother, made this quilt when he was 10 years old.

When Coolidge was vacationing here, he received word that Harding had died.  Colonel John Coolidge administered the presidential oath to his son in this room.  John Coolidge was a notary public.

Our tour guide took us across the street to the farm shop which had many of their tools.

The Carrie Brown garden was made and maintained by Coolidge's stepmother.

At this point our tour was complete and our tour guide invited us to do a self guided tour of the remaining buildings.

The cheese store had three floors.  On the top floor was a cheese museum with equipment used in 1872.

The main floor had cheese samples and of course cheese for sale while the bottom floor is where they made the cheese.

Every village always has a schoolhouse.

And of course, a church.

Bill gave a sermon but there was no one to listen to it.

The Wilder barn is a bank barn which is built into a bank or slope where you can enter on the lower level on one side and on the other you enter on the second floor.  There is also a third floor.  At this point, I didn't walk up the steps to view the upper floor.

The Wilder Horse barn was reconstructed to look like the original 1875 barn that had to be torn down in the mid 20th century.  

On the lower floor is a hearse for the summer which would be horse drawn.  On the upper floor this hearse has a sleigh instead of wheels.  

I think this mail delivery sleigh was the coolest thing in the village.  Of course since we have friends, Vicki Allen and Ron Lichtenberg who worked for the Postal Service, I had a special interest in it.

These were really equipped with a little pot belly stove to keep you warm.

It was well worn, but I truly can say, I've never seen one before.  

This post office was in operation until 1976.

It's definitely a real post office like Ron or Vicki might have been in but......

Did you get a two and half hour lunch, Ron and Vicki?

See the tiny cottages used for tourists who wanted to see where Coolidge was born.  These were used by the 18 secret service members who were guarding Coolidge.  There were more in those days because of the threat from the KKK.

Are we tired?  You, bet!  It was a beautiful day and quite a surprise but wait there's more.

There was a museum in the welcome center of artifacts and gifts from the days of  Coolidge's presidency.  

We both decided that we didn't need to see the cemetery and it was getting late.  

It was so much more than we expected.   I'm so glad we decided to visit it.  It just goes to show sometimes the state historic sites are better than the national ones.  

Turtle Safely.......