President Calvin Coolidge Inauguration Centennial: August 2-5

PLYMOUTH, Vt. – The Coolidge Foundation invites you to celebrate the centennial of the Coolidge presidency at a series of family-friendly events to be held Aug. 2-5, 2023 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.

Highlights will include reenactments of the “Homestead Inauguration,” featuring Coolidge descendants and Governor Jim Douglas, an official naturalization ceremony, a group reading of Coolidge’s autobiography, and remarks and special presentations by Coolidge scholars. On the evening of August 3, Pentangle Arts in Woodstock will host the theatrical premiere of a new feature-length Coolidge documentary. The full agenda of Centennial activities can be found on the Foundation’s website here.

It was on Aug. 2, 1923, when word came to Vice President Calvin Coolidge that President Warren Harding had suddenly passed away. Coolidge, at home in Plymouth Notch, personally got the news when his father woke him in the middle of the night. It was also Coolidge’s father, Colonel John Coolidge, who administered the Oath of Office in the family’s sitting room at 2:47 AM on Aug. 3. This kerosene-lit inauguration, unique in American history, remains emblematic of the common-sense values that guided Coolidge as America’s thirtieth president.