Descendants of the 30th president of the United States were on hand on Saturday at Plymouth Notch, Vt., for the dedication of the President Calvin Coolidge Museum and Education Center. Senator Bernie Sanders participated in the ceremony.  The senator secured $196,000 in federal funds to help pay for center’s expansion. "We must do everything we can to preserve our historic treasures for future generations. Vermonters are proud of their heritage and the many contributions we have made to American history. The Coolidge homestead is an important piece of that history," Sanders said. The Coolidge family homestead was the site at which the 30th president of the United States was sworn into office by his father, a local notary public, by the light of a kerosene lamp after the death of President Warren G. Harding.

Vice President Coolidge was on vacation at his homestead in the summer of 1923 when an urgent message arrived from Washington that Harding had died. “It seemed a simple and natural thing to do at the time, but I can now realize something of the dramatic force of the event,” Coolidge said years afterward. The homestead remains exactly as it was the night Coolidge took office. The Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site is considered one of the best preserved Presidential sites in the nation.

For more information on the Coolidge homestead and other Vermont historic sites, click here.