Plymouth Notch, VT

Erin, Holly and I met for lunch at the Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater, VT at noon to check out the locally made Long Trail brews and catch up on each others latest news. Long Trail is located just west of Woodstock on Route 4 just a few hundred feet from the turn to Route 100 south. Blackberry Wheat and Belgian White Ale (our favorites) were delivered to our table along with sandwiches.  Before we left, we checked out the self-guided tour of the brewery and the girls decided on case purchases to take home. Holly headed back to Thetford and Erin and I took a side road up to Plymouth Notch on Route 100 to locate the birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge.

In less than 6 miles we arrived at the quaint village of Plymouth that has been lovingly restored. It is a page out of summer of the 1920’s, only the original residents are now long gone. We found President Coolidge’s birthplace to be intact right down to the original furnishings.  His childhood home, general store, post office, barns, cheese factory and church still grace the street that Coolidge learned his early lessons. He was vacationing here in the summer of 1923 when he received word that President Warren Harding had died. The call came in the wee hours of the morning and the only phone in town was located in the general store.  The storekeeper refused to answer the call and eventually someone from the telegraph office in nearby Bridgewater was sent up to Plymouth to arouse the then Vice President Coolidge. Within a few short hours, he was sworn into office as the 30th President by the local notary public, his dad, John Coolidge. When he later arrived in Washington, he was sworn into office again by a Federal Judge.

The State of Vermont acquired the premises from decentants of the President in 1968 and every effort has been made to preserve its authencitity. The hill farm countryside remains as it did over 100 years ago. The backroads and byways always hold more treasures than we could ever imagine. Coolidge was in office during the roaring 20’s but his roots were far from the excitment of the cities, his solace and final resting place was in returning to his home in Vermont.