Calvin Coolidge lived in Northampton through much of his political career, and here we have in postcard images his two homes.
First, the duplex on Massasoit Street where he and his wife Grace moved after their marriage in 1905. Coolidge, a graduate of Amherst College and native of Vermont, came here to open his law practice. His wife Grace had been a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. They rented the left side of this duplex and raised their two sons here.
The Coolidges continued to make this their home through the next couple of decades as "Silent Cal" entered politics and served as Mayor of Northampton, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice President of the United States under President Warren G. Harding, and then assuming the presidency in 1923 after Harding's death in office.
Coolidge's presidency ended in 1929 ("I do not choose to run.") and in 1930, he moved his home from the house on Massasoit Street to a new house called "The Beeches" on Hampton Terrace, for more privacy. The tourists gawking at his rented duplex got to be a bit too much.
Calvin Coolidge died at "The Beeches" in 1933, at the age of 60.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
