TRAVEL AWAITS: My 12 Favorite Visits to Historic President’s Homes

The full article first appeared in Travel Awaits on Feb. 18, 2022.

When we first began RVing, I was not an American citizen yet. Actually, the trips across the country so educated me about America’s history that when I took my oath on Valentines’ Day 2011, I felt I had truly become an American. One of my best learning experiences was visiting former President’s homes: everything from small, simple cabins to large, luxurious mansions. Each gave me a view, not of how the President governed, but of the man: how he came to be and how he chose to live. Here are my favorite twelve.   

George Washington’s Mt. Vernon (1789-1797)

George Washington was our first president. He is the larger-than-life general who led the country to victory in America’s war for independence. His historic home and estate, Mt. Vernon, is now a National Historic Landmark in Virginia 13 miles south of Washington DC. The original house was built by his father in 1754 on land they owned since 1674 and expanded by Washington in the 1770s. I distinctly remember the large patio at the back where I sat on one of the rocking chairs, looking over the wide, historic Potomac River which he probably often did.

Thomas Jefferson’ Monticello (1801-1809) (headline photo)

Thomas Jefferson, another Founding Father and principal author of the Declaration of Independence, became our third president. He inherited Monticello, meaning “little mountain,” when he was only 26. He designed it in neoclassical design and incorporated French elements while he was Minister to France. Monticello, together with his summer home Poplar Forest in Virginia, is architecturally brilliant and has been designated a National Historic Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Andrew Jackson  (1829-1837)

Three presidents came from Tennessee: Andrew Jackson, James Polk, and Andrew Johnson. The Hermitage is Jackson’s home and it ranks with Mt. Vernon and Monticello as the best presidential sites. Jackson, the seventh president, was credited with the annexation of Arkansas and Michigan. And part of his legacy is the home where there is a beautiful Greek-inspired tomb and memorial to the wife he lost, even before he claimed the presidency, because of the scandal of their marriage being done before her divorce was finalized.

James Polk (1845-49)

Columbia, Tennessee is where you will find the home of James Polk, our 11th president. Sickly from the start, he put in so much hard work that the presidency cost him his life. Two portraits in his modest home, taken only two years apart, show how much he’d aged. Polk led the US to win the Mexican-American War, and his legacy was the annexation of the rest of the West.

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

Our 16th President was Abraham Lincoln, frequently cited as the best president we ever had. He led the country during its worst crisis, the Civil War, preserved the Union and abolished slavery. Such bold actions ultimately cost him his life. His Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois is, to me, the best of them all. There he comes alive with holograms. He and his wife Mary, played by actors, welcomed us to his nearby modest, Greek revival-style home. Fifty-six steps (representing his short life) lead to the Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky. It features the humble, tiny cabin where he was born.

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1905)

Theodore Roosevelt became our youngest president at 42 after President McKinley was assassinated. Still, he accomplished much: the Square Deal, the Panama Canal, and conservation as a top national priority. Although we were not able to visit the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in New York, we saw his birthplace in the city and the Maltese Cross Cabin at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota which showed me how he came to love the great outdoors.

William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

It was a stroke of luck! We came across the home of William Howard Taft, the 27th president, in front of the hospital where my husband had to have arthroscopic knee surgery in Ohio. That was especially meaningful since he did a good job laying the foundation of my home country’s public systems and infrastructure as the first Governor-General of the Philippines. In fact, that success catapulted him into the presidency. And then his strong judicial background led him to be the only president who later served as Chief Justice.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was our 32nd President for a record four terms, leading the nation through the Great Depression and WWII. His home, the Springwood Estate in Hyde Park, New York, a National Historic Site, started the tradition of Presidential Libraries. He doubled the size of his mother’s mansion and transformed it into a Colonial revival style. He stayed at the Top Cottage while his wife Eleanor lived at her Val-Kill Cottage, two miles away, another National Historic Site. She redefined the role of First Lady and became ninth of the Top Ten Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Harry Truman (1945-1953)

When Roosevelt died, Harry Truman became our 33rd president. He is known for authorizing the first and only use of nuclear weapons ending WWII; rebuilding of Europe through the Marshall Plan; and establishing the Truman doctrine and NATO. We visited his birthplace in Lamar, Missouri, and his presidential library and men’s store “Wild About Harry” managed by my husband’s nephew are both in Independence. But later he had to spend his winters orders from his doctor at the Little White House in Key West, Florida, a former base commandant’s home that became the site of many historic agreements and meetings.

Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)

At the end of WWII, Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, became our 34th president. He was responsible for the success of the Normandy landings that ended the European war. He authorized the creation of NASA, contributed to the end of McCarthyism, and built the Interstate Highway System leading to widespread economic prosperity. We visited his  Boyhood Home and Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas (my husband is from Kansas), a simple two-story wood-frame house on an acre of land. It is also his final resting place.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

John Kennedy was elected our 35th president. It was a short but beloved presidency. His eloquent speeches inspired not only the nation but the world. Together with the entire world, I mourned his assassination. My husband and I visited the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts which sits on six acres on the Cape Cod waterfront. The main home was the patriarch’s and Edward Kennedy, the smaller home on Irving Avenue became his summer White House, and Robert Kennedy’s was on Marchant Avenue. None of these is open to the public so we spent the time at the JFK Hyannis Museum nearby.

Jimmy Carter (1077-1981)

My staff and I built a home for the Philippine Chapter of Habitat for Humanity when I was GM of MegaLink, the ATM consortium of banks in the Philippines. I visited its headquarters in Americus and Atlanta Georgia. The nonprofit organization built homes using volunteer labor and sold them at no profit for affordable monthly payments. The visit also gave me the chance to take a peek at Jimmy Carter’s modest two-bedroom home in Plains. Our 39^th president may not have had a fully successful presidency but he has inspired many. Up to six years ago, he still went on a Carter-Habitat project every year.

There are ten other President’s homes we have seen that I could not include here. Visiting presidential homes has been truly instructive for me. So we are still hoping to see the other 24. 

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