Video: 'This Place in History: Coolidge Homestead'

(Friday, August 3, 1923, 2:47 p.m. EST) — Calvin Coolidge, the 29th vice president of the United States, was sworn-in as the 30th President of the United States early this morning at his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, succeeding to the presidency upon the passing of President Warren G. Harding, who had died of natural causes in San Francisco four hours and 17 minutes prior.

Coolidge was visiting his family homestead in Vermont, which did not have electricity or a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding’s death.

As the new president, Coolidge intended to take the oath of office and greet reporters who had assembled outside. He dressed in an upstairs bedroom, said a prayer, and came downstairs.

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In front of a small group of observers, including Coolidge’s wife Grace and United States Representative Porter H. Dale, his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace, administered the oath of office.

The swearing in took place in John Coolidge’s family parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. EST (3:47 a.m. in New York, which was on daylight saving time).

President Coolidge then went back to bed.

The vice presidential office would remain vacant until the next presidential term began on March 4, 1925.