[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15048]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         PRESIDENT CALVIN COOLIDGE MUSEUM AND EDUCATION CENTER

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to call the 
Senate's attention to the imminent opening of the new President Calvin 
Coolidge Museum and Education Center, a wonderful year-round tribute to 
President Coolidge, located in the graceful and historic setting of the 
President's home town of Plymouth Notch, VT. The center's formal 
opening and dedication ceremony will take place next weekend, on August 
7.
  Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, remains the only President born, 
sworn into office and buried in the State of Vermont. President 
Coolidge was originally elected to the Vice Presidency in 1920, winning 
that election alongside Warren G. Harding.
  Three years into President Harding's first term, then-Vice President 
Coolidge received an unexpected messenger one evening while he was 
vacationing at his family's home in Plymouth Notch. The messenger 
informed him of President Harding's sudden and untimely death. It was 
at 2:47 the next morning that Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as 
President, in the parlor of his family home, alongside his wife Grace 
Coolidge, a capable and respected First Lady and a leading Vermonter in 
her own right. The oath of office was administered by President 
Coolidge's father, a State notary public official, by the light of a 
kerosene lamp. The new President left for Washington the next morning 
to assume the burdens of his new office.
  President Coolidge was always known as a man of few words--the 
inspiration for his famous nickname, Silent Cal. Stoic in the New 
England tradition, President Coolidge also was an eloquent speaker who 
felt an obligation to communicate often with the American people to 
explain his policies.
  Today, the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation is dedicated to 
preserving the Nation's memory of Calvin Coolidge. Founded in 1960, the 
foundation is now celebrating its 50th year. By working closely with 
the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, the Coolidge Foundation 
collects and preserves artifacts and resources related to the 
President. Many of the buildings within the village have become State-
owned historical properties, and Plymouth Notch has been named the 
best-preserved Presidential site in the Nation. The development of the 
new museum and education center--solid and useful in the Yankee 
tradition--will expand the accessibility of these archives to the 
public, while providing a venue for students to learn about their 
country's history.
  We Vermonters take pride in our history and heritage, and we feel the 
obligations of stewardship in these things. The Calvin Coolidge 
Memorial Foundation is faithfully tending to the preservation and 
dissemination of this part of Vermont's legacy and our country's 
history. It is my pleasure to congratulate the Calvin Coolidge Memorial 
Foundation, in partnership with the State of Vermont, on the occasion 
of the commemoration and dedication of the President Calvin Coolidge 
Museum and Education Center.

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