Elevate Your Fourth of July at the Notch

February 28, 2014

 

p10305061On Friday, July 4, the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation will celebrate the birth of the nation as well as its thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge is the only U.S. president born on Independence Day, and July 4 has been commemorated at his birthplace in Plymouth Notch for many decades. Honor Coolidge and elevate your Fourth by attending a day of special celebrations.

The public is invited to gather at the Plymouth Notch village green at 11:30 a.m. A delegation of the Vermont National Guard will lead a march to the Plymouth Notch Cemetery. There, a wreath from the White House will be placed at the President’s gravesite in a brief ceremony with members of the Coolidge family in attendance. President Coolidge’s great-granddaughter Jennifer Sayles Harville will sing the National Anthem and Coolidge relations including Don Pollard will commence a public reading of The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge.

At 1:00 p.m. in Plymouth’s Union Christian Church, the Coolidge Foundation will continue the full-length, group reading of Coolidge’s Autobiography. The confirmed roster of readers includes members of the Coolidge family, Coolidge impersonator Jim Cooke, Coolidge biographers Amity Shlaes and David Pietrusza, Hoover biographer George Nash, and long-time Coolidge Foundation friends and supporters like Mimi Baird, Barbara O’Connell, and William Jenney. Members of the media will also read, including radio hosts Brady Carlson of New Hampshire Public Radio, Ben Sarro of WNTK-FM, Sue Henry of WILK-FM, and editors Rich Lowry of National Review, Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun, James Ottaway, Jr., formerly of Dow Jones, and Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit, Germany’s leading weekly newspaper. The public is encouraged to join the reading. To reserve your spot, please contact Events@Calvin-Coolidge.org.

Other July 4 activities include a chicken barbecue at the site’s restaurant, The Wilder House, wine and cheese tasting at the Plymouth Artisan Cheese Factory, and horse-drawn wagon rides with Plymouth resident Fred DePaul. In addition, members of Fiber Arts in Vermont will showcase their latest project – a reproduction of a Coolidge family woolen blanket.

The public can tour twelve buildings at the Coolidge Site, which is owned and operated by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. A National Historic Landmark, Plymouth Notch is considered one of the best-preserved presidential sites in the country. At the Museum & Education Center, visitors can see the permanent exhibit, More Than Two Words: The Life and Legacy of Calvin Coolidge. This season’s temporary exhibit, The Coolidges, Plymouth, and the Civil War, has been designated a “Top 10 Vermont Civil War Sesquicentennial Event.”

For further information about July 4 programs, or other special events, contact the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, 802-672-3389, or visit the Foundation online at: www.CoolidgeFoundation.org.

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