Visits to Presidential Sites

8th President, 1837 - 1841 Martin Van Buren sites visited: Van Buren was born in this house at 46 Hudson Street in Kinderhook, New York. It looked like it was undergoing renovation when we stopped by in 2025. Van Buren bought the Lindenwald estate in Kinderhook in 1839 and lived there from 1841 until his death in 1862. It looks like it was a magnificent home. This portrait was hung as part of a Vice President's exhibit at the Gerald R Ford Museum in Grand Rapids MI. Van Buren served as Jackson's VP (1833-1837). From our stamp collection: His statue in Rapid City, South Dakota. Martin Van Buren was born in the Dutch community of Kinderhook so he was the only President to have spoken English as his second language, and was the first President who was not born a British subject. The only president shorter than Van Buren (5'6") was James Monroe (5'4"). He unfortunately continued Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policies and enforced the Indian Removal Act of 18...

35th President, 1961-1963  JFK sites visited: JFK was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, MA, in 1917. The site was not open. I have these photos from 2009 and I think they were from a tour of this place but I can't be sure. We happened to eat here on a visit to Boston, MA in 2014.  This statue in Dayton, Ohio, is supposed to represent Kennedy and the Eternal Flame. You be the judge. Find it on the campus of the University of Dayton, E. Stewart Street. JFK gave a speech at Roosevelt's Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. The National Museum of the U.S. Air force is located near Dayton and has Kennedy's plane, the one that flew him to Dallas and back in 1963. The car which carried Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. After the assassination the car was rebuilt with a roof, armor plating, and more, and remained in service until 1977. The Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois, had a small Kennedy exhibit i...