In honor of Presidents’ Day, my Monday post will show the trio of homes that I have visited. I have yet to scan the 1971 negatives from my childhood trip to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, so this vintage shot will have to do. Located in Alexandra, Virginia, the Palladian style home began construction in 1734 and went through a number of expansions and remodels over the next 45 years, yielding the present structure that guests can tour today.
The closest you can get to seeing Washington himself is in Orlando, where his animatronic performs daily in the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World:
I’ve been to Monicello twice; once in 1971 and then returned again (with my own camera!) in 2017.
Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. President, began work on his neoclassic home in 1768, with a number of expansions and revisions that continued on until his death in 1826.
He is also represented in the Hall of Presidents:
Want to see a panorama of the Hall of Presidents? Here you go:
I’ve never been to the home of our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, but I have visited him at Disneyland’s Opera House:
…and seen his inferior counterpart in Orlando:
I also happened to catch him at the now defunct Tresor Gallery on Royal Street in New Orleans in 2015:
Jumping forward to our thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon, I visited his birthplace in 2005.
Located on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, it is a very modest dwelling, built in 1912 from a mail order construction kit by his father, Frank Nixon.
What better place for the then vice president to celebrate the christening of the Disneyland Monorail in 1959 than at the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour? He is surrounded by his wife Pat, Louise the waitress, and daughter Tricia Nixon. General Manager Mr. Knowles seem to be giving an unspecified direction to the photographer from the background.
Now I’m craving an ice cream sundae.
See more Daveland photos at my main website.
1 comment:
That look on Knowles' face would go better with a different finger. A part of me always wanted to see Nixon's animatronic at WDW say something like "This one time... Bob Gurr kidnapped me in the monorail. Best day of my life." I've visited the Nixon library but for the life of me can't remember seeing the house.
That Tresor Gallery bust is the most realistic human sculpture I've ever seen. I have no idea how close it is to Lincoln in real life, but that thing looks like it's going to talk to you.
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