John Coolidge Sr

President Coolidge saying goodbye to his father at his home in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1924.  Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The scene in 2014:

The 1924 photo in this post shows Coolidge arriving at his father’s farm, and this one appears to be of him preparing to leave and head back to Washington.  If you look closely, the car has a Washington, DC license plate, which is interesting because I can’t imagine Coolidge would have taken the car all the way back to the White House, given the poor quality of the nation’s roads in pre-Interstate days.  Most likely, Coolidge would ride in this car to the nearest train station (Ludlow, perhaps?), and then the car would be carried on the train back to DC.  Also visible in this photo is Grace Coolidge, who is already seated in the car, and their son John, who is standing behind his grandfather and appears to be looking at whatever the uniformed man is holding.

President Calvin Coolidge greeting his father at his home in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1924.  Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The scene in 2014:

The first scene shows President Coolidge arriving at his father’s farm in Plymouth, Vermont, probably at the start of his August 1924 vacation.  John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., his father, is the person furthest to the right, shaking hands with his son.

The elder Coolidge was 79 at the time, and he had worked as a farmer, teacher, and store owner over the years.  He also served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1872 to 1878, and in the Vermont Senate in 1910, during the same time that his son was the mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts.  However, he is probably best known for administering the oath of office to his son, who as Vice President the previous year had been visiting his father when word came that President Harding had died.  He remains the only non-judge to administer the oath of office to the president, although he was a notary public.  Because of that, though, there was a concern about the legality of the oath, so Coolidge was sworn in again several weeks later by a federal judge.