As the United States has grown, the homes of its presidents have changed too. From the grand estates of the Kennedys to Abraham Lincoln’s simple Illinois home, each residence gives us a glimpse into the personality and legacy of these leaders. These homes reflect their times and personal stories, showing us how each president lived and what mattered to them.

Let’s start with the two most recent presidencies and work our way backward in history.

Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware

Following decades of public service, including over 35 years as a US Senator and eight years as Vice President under Barack Obama, in 2021, Joe Biden finally achieved his presidency. While some of his predecessors had preferred large country estates or luxurious urban penthouses, Biden remained true to his middle-class roots by holding on to his long-time family home in Wilmington, Delaware.

The two-story Colonial-style house is modest but has served over the decades as Biden’s personal sanctuary through both joyful and tragic times. It was here he had mourned the death of his first wife and young daughter in a 1972 car accident, and here he had celebrated the political triumphs that ultimately propelled him into the Oval Office. But then, despite the trappings of the presidency, Biden steadfastly refused to abandon this humble abode, instead choosing to split his time between the White House and his familiar Wilmington digs.

Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort

Contrasted with the unassuming Biden home, there is an estate fitting for a president-the palatial Mar-a-Lago estate of Donald Trump. This 118-room resort in Palm Beach, Florida, had been purchased by the real estate mogul-turned-president back in 1985 and would later become Trump’s personal winter White House during his term of office.

This 126,000-square-foot monument to ostentatious luxury was originally built in the 1920s as the lavish private residence of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, replete with gilded ballrooms, towering Greek-revival columns, and meticulously manicured gardens. Trump restored and expanded the property into not only his personal playground but also a members-only club for the wealthy elite.

Still, he has made regular visits to the premises even after leaving the presidency and calls it home now. His resort has become a de facto headquarters for the former president, hosting political rallies, entertaining foreign dignitaries, and plotting an ongoing influence over the Republican party.

Barack Obama’s Washington, D.C Mansion

After eight eventful years in the White House, Barack and Michelle Obama opted against returning to their hometown of Chicago and instead laid down roots in the nation’s capital. In 2017, the former first family moved into a stately 8,200-square-foot mansion in the posh Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

This elegant brick Tudor, which the Obamas purchased for $8.1 million, features eight bedrooms, nine and a half bathrooms, along with a swimming pool and medieval-style turret, among other luxurious amenities. Already sumptuously appointed, the property has since been touched by the Obamas with their personal taste, fashioning it into a comfortable, modern haven just a few miles from the White House they once occupied.

By staying on in the nation’s capital, rather than decamping to Chicago or even Hawaii-where they also possess a home-the Obamas underline their deep commitment to community and public service. Even in retirement, they have continued to wield influence and actively stay engaged about national issues.

Prairie Chapel Ranch by George W. Bush

After the tumult of two terms bookended by the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, George W. Bush retired to his 1,583-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas when he left the presidency in 2009. During his presidency, the Prairie Chapel Ranch was known as the “Western White House,” but it is now a peaceful retreat for the former president and his wife, Laura.

The modern, single-story house: designed by noted architect David Heymann, features an open-plan living area boasting panoramic views of the Texas Hill Country. In addition to the main house, the estate includes a guesthouse, a fishing pond, and copious open space for Bush to give full rein to his favorite brush-clearing activity – one in which he’d famously engage whenever overseas leaders came for a visit.

But the ranch wasn’t a stranger to headliners all by itself. Bush hosted a slew of world leaders at the estate, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The former president also appreciated the ranch as a place of retreat, though – he once told Oprah Winfrey his favorite moment was “when I caught a 7.5-pound perch in my lake.”

Bill Clinton’s Farmhouse in Chappaqua

After the impeachment storm finally weathered, after two terms as president, Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary exchanged the grandeur of the White House for a more modest retreat in the quaint town of Chappaqua, New York. The Clintons purchased, in 1999, a Dutch Colonial-style farmhouse built in 1889, for 1.7 million dollars.

The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house sat on nearly six acres-an oasis of calm for the Clintons from the national stage. Comfortable, worn, and rural simple, the Chappaqua estate was far removed from the grand mansions that had housed other former presidents. It was that very reason-the unassuming nature-a quality absent in so many presidential homes-that the Clintons liked it all the same.

With time, the Clintons had expanded their compound in Chappaqua by adding the neighboring three-bedroom house in 2016 for an additional $1.2 million. This quiet retreat has served as a hub for the family, hosting gatherings with their daughter Chelsea and grandchildren, along with high-profile guests such as Oprah Winfrey.

The Compound of George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport

After one term in the White House, George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara repaired to their longtime summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Nicknamed the “Summer White House” when Bush was in office, the sprawling oceanfront compound has actually been a family haven for more than a century.

Anchoring the estate is the stately nine-bedroom New England Shingle-style main house, complete with a myriad of living rooms, dining rooms, and other warm gathering spaces. Additional structures on the property include a guesthouse, garage, pool, boathouse, and a private dock along the picturesque Maine coastline.

This is despite the compound’s grand scale-the Kennebunkport compound exuded a casual, lived-in atmosphere that reflected the Bushes’ down-to-earth sensibilities. As Barbara Bush described it, the décor was a “hodgepodge” of hand-me-down furniture and well-worn furnishings-a far cry from the manicured opulence of some presidential retreats.

The compound was the Bush family’s relaxed retreat, where several summer vacations and other milestones were spent together. It also provided the setting for high-leveled diplomacy when hosting world leaders like Vladimir Putin and Margaret Thatcher during Bush’s presidency.

Since the former president’s death in 2018, it has remained in the Bush family; thus, this dear marine retreat shall remain a fulcrum for the family for years into the future.

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Ronald Reagan’s Bel Air Retreat

In 1989, after leaving the Oval Office, former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy settled into a comfortable three-bedroom, six-bathroom house in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air. A house purchased for the Reagans in 1986 by a circle of friends for $2.5 million, the house would be their principal residence for the rest of their lives.

Despite its rarefied Bel Air address, the Reagan house was enveloped in an unpretentious and cozy charm mainly through the soft touch of the couples’ long-time interior designer, Ted Graber. Mid-century modern furniture combined with antique accents is Graber’s singular design trademark, which he conveys supremely into this comfortable yet refined living environment.

The library was, of course, the heart of the house-central to the Reagans’ life and their own personal retreat. Lined with leather-bound volumes and shelves filled with keepsakes of their foreign travels, it was here that the former president and first lady would have dinner and discuss current events with good friends and political supporters.

Sadly, Ronald Reagan’s last years were plagued by his long fight against Alzheimer’s disease, of which he would eventually die in 2004 at the age of 93. The Bel Air house, where Nancy Reagan took care of her ailing husband, remained in the family until it was sold in 2016 to billionaire Jerry Perenchio for $15 million dollars.

Richard Nixon’s House La Casa Pacifica

After resigning from the presidency in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon and wife Pat retreated to their seaside haven of La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California. The 9,000-square-foot oceanfront compound, purchased by the Nixons in 1969 for approximately $1.4 million, would continue into recent decades as their official primary residence.

Set around a hacienda-style courtyard, the sprawling Mission Revival-style home played host to a veritable who’s who of VIPs during the Nixons tenure ranging from Frank Sinatra and John Wayne to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The couples’ private quarters-which boast vibrant yellow curtains, plush sofas, and a host of other era-specific accouterments-were truly the epitome of 1970s style.

After his resignation, so-called “Western White House” was abuzz with activity with this disgraced former president trying to rehabilitate his public image and pen his memoirs. After the Nixons relocated to New York during the 1980s, this estate traded owners multiple times before it went on the market for sale in 2019 with a breathtaking price tag of $57.5 million.

But despite the scandals and controversies that saw his presidency end in ignominy, the enduring La Casa Pacifica stands as a testament to the complexities-often contradictions-within an American presidency that served as a place of refuge and redemption for one of the most divisive leaders this nation has known.

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Texas Ranch 

When Lyndon B. Johnson left the White House in 1969, he and his wife Lady Bird headed straight for their sprawlingTexas ranch in Stonewall just outside of Johnson City. Known as the “Texas White House,” the 800-acre property had been in the Johnson family for generations and would serve as the former president’s primary residence for the remainder of his life.

The Johnsons had, over the years, made this relatively modest ranch home into a veritable command center, tacking on master bedrooms, an office wing, and an astounding 300 phone lines to keep Johnson’s hard-charging involvement in national affairs going strong, even in retirement. The décor of the home was to stay relatively simple and unpretentious, reflecting the couple’s down-to-earth sensibilities.

It was here, in the comfort of his Texas retreat, that Johnson died of a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 64. Lady Bird continued to live part-time on the ranch until her passing in 2007. The ranch subsequently became part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, which opened the private life of one of America’s most consequential-and complicated-presidents to the public.

Though the “Texas White House” has been closed to the public since 2018 due to ongoing renovations, in the years to come it is eventually expected once again to permit a whole new generation of Americans to appreciate the rustic charms and historic value of this singular presidential sanctuary.

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John F. Kennedy’s Hyannis Port Compound

Born into a highly prom­inent, wealthy fam­ily, John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline were the closest thing to American royalty the country had ever known. Among their many grand residences, by far the most famous is undoubtedly the sprawling compound of the family in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

The history of the Hyannis Port estate dates back to 1928, when JFK’s father, Joe Kennedy, bought the original white clapboard house for $25,000. Through the years, the family continued renovations and enlargements to that lot, naming it the “Big House” and turning it into an 11-bedroom, multiacre oceanfront retreat.

The Hyannis Port compound had been a cherished family retreat-one with particular poignancy for all of John F. Kennedy’s life. Here the young senator would hone his politics, holding strategy sessions on the manicured lawn for his successful 1960 presidential campaign. And even after moving into the White House, the Kennedys would escape to the Cape Cod retreat for summer vacations and family gatherings.

Today, the compound in Hyannis Port remains with the Kennedy family. One of the homes on the six-acre lot is occupied by JFK’s nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Ethel. While it is not open to the public, it remains a place of refuge for the storied political dynasty from the glare of the national limelight, serving somewhat as a place where they could continue the family legacy.

Gettysburg Farmhouse of Dwight D. Eisenhower

Following the White House, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower retired to their beloved farmhouse in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They had taken the humble dwelling and made it an engagingly comfortable Georgian-style retreat complete with a sun porch. Mamie had enjoyed decorating the different rooms from the cozy living room to the master bedroom colored in various shades of pink. In 1967, the Eisenhowers donated the farm to the National Park Service and is available today to the public as a museum.

Town House of Woodrow Wilson-Washington, D.C.

After leaving the presidency, a magnificent Georgian Revival townhouse in the Kalorama area of Washington D.C. was bought by Woodrow Wilson. It was here that the ailing Wilson spent his last years with his wife Edith attending to him. The restored property is today open as a museum to visitors who come to tour its elegantly appointed interiors. This townhouse is also said to be haunted by the ghost of the erstwhile president.

Abraham Lincoln’s Home in Springfield

From the humble log cabin of his birth in Kentucky to arguably the most iconic and popular figure in American history, Abraham Lincoln would rise. Yet, despite such lofty achievements, the 16th president maintained, at least in terms of lifestyle and personal residence, a rather modest nature-even about his origins.

In 1844, Lincoln purchased a modest cottage in Springfield, Illinois for $1,200-what might be $50,000 today. Over the next 17 years, he and his wife, Mary, made several additions to the two-story home, fashioning it into a comfortable-if unassuming-family residence.

Even as Lincoln took the presidency in 1861, the Springfield house remained the Lincolns’ primary residence. They always planned on returning to their haven in Illinois when his term was to be over, and their fine furniture was stored for their eventual homecoming. Poignantly, that homecoming would never see its day, as Lincoln was assassinated just days after the close of the Civil War.

The President’s death made the renting of the house in Springfield, not the selling. The most valued things of the Lincolns were treasured with tender care. Today, this historic residence has been painstakingly restored to its 1860s appearance and offers the visitor a poignant glimpse into the unassuming yet significant life of one of America’s most beloved leaders.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon

As the first president of the United States, George Washington rightly boasts the sobriquet “Father of His Country.” But despite his monumental historic importance, the master of Washington’s private world was not the marble halls of the White House but rather, in the deep green of his favorite place, Mount Vernon, in Virginia.

First planted by Washington’s father in 1734, this sprawling 8,000-acre plantation was one of great pride and industry from the first president. Throughout his lifetime, Washington oversaw several expansion and renovation projects on the stately Georgian-style mansion, turning it into an 11,000-square-foot showplace of colonial architecture.

Beyond this by far ostentatious principal house, the Mount Vernon plantation included quarters for the hundreds of enslaved people who labored on the estate, besides various outbuildings and farm-related buildings. While Washington’s ambiguously evolving views on slavery continue to be debated by scholars today, the estate nevertheless stands as a monument to the wealth and prestige he amassed as the result of his leadership in the American Revolution and beyond.

Mount Vernon passed through several owners after his death in 1799 until it was acquired by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for restoration and preservation in the middle of the 19th century. Today, the property fills the function of a museum and historic site, offering a unique glimpse into the private life and legacy of the nation’s first president.

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