President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site gets a new 'Summer White House' exhibit

Vermont's State Historic Sites are opening on Friday, May 24, for the 2024 season, according to a news release.

"The Vermont State Historic Sites present history where it happened and provide exciting experiences for everyone," State Historic Preservation Officer Laura Trieschmann said in a statement. "For the art and history enthusiasts we have a restored 19th-century Italian gilded frame owned by Senator Morrill, refreshed trail signs at our Revolutionary War fort and several new history panels at the Coolidge presidential site."

Justin Morrill was the longest serving member of Congress in its first 160 years, known for framing the 14th amendment, which granted equal protection and rights to freed slaves, among other things.

The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth has a new exhibit on the second floor of the Cilley General Store, all about Coolidge using the space as his "Summer White House" 100 years ago in 1924. The Coolidge site also added history panels for the 1890 school house that's part of the village and exhibits about President Chester Arthur, who was also born in Vermont.

The Arthur site in Fairfield, which was the first historic site owned by the state of Vermont, dedicated in 1903, comes with a bit of controversy, as research ultimately found it was not the site of Arthur's birth. The state had reconstructed his home there from photographs in 1953. Turns out that was Arthur's second home in Vermont, not his birth home. The true location of Arthur's birth is "passionately debated" to this day, according to the site's website.

There's also a new traveling exhibit at the Chimney Point State Historic Site, from the Daughters of the American Revolution, called the American Revolution Experience. The exhibit will be on display for the month of August.

Here's the list of Vermont's historic sites:

• Bennington Battle Monument

• Chimney Point

• Hubbardton Battlefield

• Mount Independence

• President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site

• President Chester A. Arthur State Historic Site

• Senator Justin Morrill State Historic Site

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont's State Historic Sites are opening this weekend for 2024