TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, personal letterhead, February 19, 1932. Coolidge writes H. V. Woods in Bridgewater, Vermont. In full: “I suppose I shall have to put in an electric plant. The generator would weigh about 500 pounds and ought to go in the cellar, unless it is too damp. It has to have a pipe going outdoors for the exhaust. On account of the noise I should prefer to put it under the kitchen. It will always be running when the lights are on. It would not be quite so easy to pipe out of doors from there, I suppose. We shall have to build a cement base for it and the gasolene tank will go in the ground outside the buildings. That could go either in front or back.
I am also thinking of putting in a bath tub, wash bowel [sic] and water-closet in the room back of the kitchen sink. It would have to be connected with a septic tank which would be located near the Northwest corner of the house. I might want to cut a door from the entry into this bath room and close the door leading into it from the kitchen. Some day when the traveling is comfortable, you might go up there and look around. You will probably need an electric searchlight in the cellar. I wish you would measure up the proposed bath room and send me a little sketch showing where we could locate the plumbing in it.
I assume we have cut about all the lumber you will need for the addition, but we shall have to have doors, hardware, etc., which I think I can get to good advantage with the plumbing fixtures and lighting fixtures from Sears, Roebuck & Company. They have a store in this town. Sometime you might make out a list of what we are going to need in the way of piping and wiring. I think we had better use brass pipe. I suppose you have someone that can do the wiring for us.” In very good condition, with intersecting horizontal and vertical folds with a vertical fold touching the first letter of his last name, a stain at the left side affecting appearance, and scattered soiling and several rust spots at the bottom of the page.
Written less than a year before his death, Coolidge discusses plans for the renovation and expansion of the family home (and his birthplace) in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Although Coolidge spent his remaining days at ‘The Beeches’ in Northampton, MA, busying himself with various presidential and directorial service positions with organizations such as the New York Life Insurance Company, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the American Antiquarian Society, the place he spent his youth always remained at the forefront of his mind, evidenced by the detailed construction plans he meticulously outlines in this letter to a contractor. The former president was brought up in a house without both modernized plumbing and electricity, something he sought to rectify: “I suppose I shall have to put in an electric plant...I am also thinking of putting in a bath tub, wash bowel [sic] and water-closet in the room back of the kitchen sink.” After the sudden heart-attack that claimed his life in January of 1933, Coolidge was buried in Notch Cemetery in Vermont, finding his final resting place in the town in which his life began. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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