7 Presidential Homes You Can Visit

The homes of U.S. presidents are a great way to show kids the more personal side of men whose fame centers around their public accomplishments. To bring these famous names to life for your children and give them a new perspective of American history, look for one of these presidential homes during your family travels.

George Washington’s home for 45 years, Mount Vernon was a working farm, which you can tour along with the home overlooking the Potomic River near Washington, D.C. Its original buildings have been preserved or replicated, and you can watch as some of the 18^th-century skills are demonstrated there. These may include, seasonally, sheep shearing, plowing, blacksmithing and grinding grain in the gristmill.

Also in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is one of the most beautiful colonial homes in America. Jefferson designed it himself, and inside you can see some of his inventions. Outside are the gardens he also designed. Rounding out the picture of life on a plantation in the 1700s is an outdoor exhibit on the enslaved people who worked there. The visitors’ center has hands-on activities for children.

A third presidential home in Virginia is James Madison’s Montpelier, restored to its appearance at the time Madison and his wife Dolley lived there. Madison is known as the architect of the Bill of Rights, and exhibits there bring it and the Constitution into 21^st-century life.

Just outside Nashville, Tennessee, you can tour The Hermitage, home of the seventh president, Andrew Jackson. The house is restored to its appearance when Jackson lived here, from 1837 to 1845, and includes exhibits of Jackson’s private life and public service. Kids will enjoy the horse-drawn wagon rides through the grounds.

Two more presidents’ homes are in New York. Springwood was the family home and birthplace of Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he and Eleanor just referred to it as Hyde Park. Now a national park that includes 15 rooms of the house, the first Presidential Library and more than 1,000 acres of gardens and trails, Hyde Park could keep your family busy for an entire day.

The home of another President Roosevelt is in New York, on Long Island. Sagamore Hill was the “Summer White House” of Theodore Roosevelt, and the 23-room mansion is decorated with hunting trophies from his African travels. Trails and an Audubon Center are part of this National Historic Park.

Unlike the elegant country homes and plantations of other presidents, the home and birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge is a modest farm in Vermont. Preserved much as it was when he lived there, Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch includes a small village with a church, schoolhouse and 1924 Summer White House office. You can even see the parlor where Coolidge took the oath of office, administered by his father.