Ten Great Presidential Sites

Take a break from the 2008 elections and learn about presidents past at these landmarks.

By: Julia M. Klein | Source: AARP.org | 2008-08-27

Political rhetoric, pundits, and prognostications have been filling the airwaves for months in anticipation of the November election. What better moment to immerse ourselves in a little presidential history?

To create our list of must-see presidential sites (in order of when the men served), we consulted presidential historians and political scientists. Our experts were particularly drawn to places where they glimpsed the private man behind the public figure, but they split on the value of the modern presidential libraries and their museums. Joan Hoff, research professor of history at Montana State University and former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, sees them as comparable to the Egyptian pyramids, designed merely “to glorify the presidency” and “whitewash” controversial events.

Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, argues that they can still be fascinating—provided you understand you’ll be seeing mainly the “positive side of the ledger.”

Mount Vernon
George Washington’s Virginia plantation highlights his career as a working farmer and slaveholder. “It is also his final resting place, much to the chagrin of the planners of the U.S. Capitol, who had set aside a tomb for the statesman and war hero,” noted Sabato. In 2006, Mount Vernon unveiled two major additions: the Ford Orientation Center and the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, with state-of-the-art theaters and nearly 700 artifacts.

Don’t miss: The functioning reconstruction of Washington's own distillery, which was “once the largest in all of North America,” according to Sabato.
Information: http://www.mountvernon.org

Monticello
“Monticello” (with the last two syllables pronounced like the stringed instrument) means “little mountain,” and Thomas Jefferson’s stunning neoclassical refuge—which he himself designed—commands beautiful views of the Albemarle County, Va., countryside. It is filled with French furniture and artifacts representing his eclectic interests and genius for invention, including an apparatus that allowed him to simultaneously create two copies of every letter he wrote.

Sabato was moved by sight of the bed where Jefferson died—on July 4, 1826, 50 years after the Declaration of Independence, which he had penned, was signed. “John Adams died on the same day, adding to the freakishness of it all,” Sabato said. And as Adams died, he whispered, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” But Jefferson had died just a few hours before at Monticello.

Plantation tours touch on the lives of the enslaved Hemings family, including Jefferson’s alleged mistress, Sally.

Don’t miss: The bust of Alexander Hamilton in the entrance hall, “Jefferson’s political enemy, but one, obviously, for whom he had high respect,” said Sidney M. Milkis, White Burkett Miller Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
Information: http://www.monticello.org

Montpelier          
In Orange, Va., the lifelong home of James Madison, “the Father of the Constitution,” is undergoing an architectural restoration, which will be capped by a ceremony on Constitution Day (Sept. 17, 2008) featuring U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Summer tours highlight the progress of the restoration, which will return the mansion to its appearance in the 1820s.

Don’t miss: The Visitor Center and Education Center display artifacts and furniture owned by our fourth president and his wife, Dolley.
Information: http://www.montpelier.org
 
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
With the celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12, 1809) under way, this Springfield, Ill., museum is essential viewing. Virtual-reality technology, film, theater, and lifelike dioramas add techie touches. They set off the museum’s artifacts, such as one of five original copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s handwriting, to make this one of the country’s most engaging history museums, about one of America’s most revered presidents. Through Nov. 9, 2008, see the special exhibition, “Packaging Presidents: Two Centuries of Campaigns and Candidates.”

Don’t miss: The “Ghosts of the Library” theatrical presentation and a four-minute cinematic recap of the Civil War’s military campaigns and mounting casualties.
Information:  http://www.presidentlincoln.org
 
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
Joan Hoff loves the Theodore Roosevelt home, located in Oyster Bay, Long Island, N.Y., because, she said, “It honestly and modestly reflects both his intellect and personality.”

Charles Markis, chief of interpretation and visitor services, says the shingle-style house, built in 1885, passed directly to the National Park Service from the family. So the dwelling was never modernized. It still has mementos from Roosevelt’s presidency, when the home served as the first Summer White House. There’s also a Roosevelt museum and a nature trail.

Don’t miss: The 72 taxidermy-mounts, trophies from Roosevelt’s hunting days.
Information: http://www.nps.gov/sahi/

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Both the first modern presidential library and the home of our only four-term president are in Historic Hyde Park, N.Y. The site’s attractions also include Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s retreat. Completed in 1941 in a spectacular Hudson River setting, the library houses a study where FDR used to work.

Don’t miss: FDR’s 1936 Ford Phaeton, with hand controls, since he was paralyzed by polio. “He was disabled,” said the museum spokesman, Clifford Laube, “but he didn’t let it slow him down.”
Information: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/ and http://www.nps.gov/hofr

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Designed by I.M. Pei and overlooking the Boston waterfront at Columbia Point, “it’s the most beautiful” of the presidential libraries, remarked Shirley Anne Warshaw, professor of political science at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. The tug of boomer nostalgia is also strong.

The Kennedy library inspires “a poignancy that leaves one with a respect for what he accomplished,” said Sabato, “as well as a nagging sadness for what was tragically left undone.”

Don’t miss: The Cuban Missile Crisis displays “do a solid job of explaining how the nation narrowly avoided the miscalculations that would have ended civilization,” asserted Sabato.
Information: http://www.jfklibrary.org/
                       
Eisenhower National Historic Site
Fittingly for a West Point graduate, the house and farm where Dwight D. Eisenhower used to raise Angus cows are near the Gettysburg Battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa. There’s a pad for the presidential helicopter and a putting green for presidential golf. “On the back porch, he used to play cards a lot overlooking the fields,” recounted Warshaw, editor of “Reexamining the Eisenhower Presidency.” “He was a painter, and the home is full of his paintings,” Warshaw said.

Don’t miss: Gifts from visiting world leaders, including a silk carpet from the Shah of Iran and porcelain birds from Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Information: http://www.nps.gov/eise/
 
LBJ Ranch
Located in the Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio, the ranch is part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, which also includes his boyhood home and other sites in nearby Johnson City. For this year’s Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Celebration, the ranch is showing “Movies Under the Stars.” Seeing places like the LBJ Ranch “brings a president down to earth,” remarked George C. Edwards III, distinguished professor of political science at Texas A&M University and the editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly.

Don’t miss: The restored “Texas White House” office, reopened on Aug. 27.
Information: http://www.nps.gov/lyjo and http://www.lbj100.org/
 
                      
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
On a hill overlooking California’s Simi Valley and the Pacific Ocean sits this “very majestic library,” said Warshaw. Exhibits on Reagan’s acting career, copies of love letters to his wife, Nancy, and a display on the failed assassination attempt by John Hinckley are all “beautifully done,” she said.

Don’t miss: The recreation of the Oval Office and the Air Force One Pavilion, housing “The Flying White House.”
Information: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/museum/

Julia M. Klein is a Philadelphia-based cultural reporter and critic.