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Life After the White House: See the Homes Where Former Presidents Lived After Their Time in Office

Life After the White House: See the Homes Where Former Presidents Lived After Their Time in Office

From Texas to California to Florida, take a look at the grand estates and modest homes where former presidents moved after their time in office — from Harry Truman to Donald Trump.

By Sophie Dodd

January 28, 2021 02:36 PM

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Harry Truman

Credit: Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty

In 1953, former President Truman returned to the home he had previously shared with his wife Bess since they wed in 1919: 219 North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri.

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Harry Truman

Credit: Bradley Smith/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty

The fourteen-room home, originally purchased by Bess's grandfather, George Porterfield Gates, in 1867, is now a National Historic Site, maintained by the National Park Service.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Credit: Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty. Inset: M. McNeill/Fox Photos/Getty

Eisenhower retired to a home and farm beside the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. It's been a National Historic Site open to the public since 1980. The 34th president previously met with international leaders there during the Cold War.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Credit: Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty

The home was renovated in the early 1950s and donated to the National Parks Service in 1967. It features a teahouse, a skeet range, a putting green and Angus cattle barns.

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Jacqueline Kennedy

Credit: Getty

Shortly after the death of her husband John F. Kennedy, former First Lady Jackie Kennedy left the White House and retreated to their summer home in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

The couple, seen here at the property in 1953 just after announcing their engagement, also had an estate called Wexford in Virginia, which was completed shortly before JFK's death. It sold in 2017 for $2.85 million after reportedly being listed for as much as $10 million.

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Jacqueline Kennedy

Credit: Tim Gray/Getty

The six-acre waterfront parcel known as the Kennedy compound holds three houses and is still used by various members of the family today.

Jackie later owned several other residences including an Upper East Side apartment overlooking the Central Park Reservoir later renamed in her honor; a country house in Peapack, New Jersey; and a beach house on Martha's Vineyard, which was listed for sale for $65 million by her daughter Caroline in 2019.

“Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard. When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit,” Caroline explained in a statement to Christie’s International Real Estate. Her mother had purchased the property for around $1 million in 1978.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

Credit: Robert Alexander/Getty

After leaving office, Johnson returned with his wife Lady Bird to the Johnson City, Texas, ranch where he was born. He is buried on the property, which is now a museum.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

Credit: Getty. Inset: Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty

The ranch, nicknamed the Texas White House, began offering tours in 2007, following the death of the former first lady. The home is still outfitted in 1960s style.

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Richard Nixon

Credit: Getty. Inset: Bachrach/Getty

After Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974, he and his wife Pat moved into their 15,000-square-foot home in San Clemente, California, where he went on to write his memoirs. The unique nine-bedroom, fourteen-bathroom compound features octagonal living spaces and large windows. In 2019, it was listed for sale for $57.5 million.

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Gerald Ford

Credit: Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty

After leaving office in 1977, Ford and his wife Betty retired to their Thunderbird Country Club abode in Rancho Mirage, California. Designed for the pair by Welton Becket & Associates, the midcentury house was decorated by Beverly Hills-favorite Laura Mako in a sunny, '70s style.

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Gerald Ford

Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty

Here, in 2006, former President Ford and former First Lady Betty Ford are seen with then-President George W. Bush outside their home. Later that year, Ford died at the home on Dec. 26.

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Jimmy Carter

Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty

America’s oldest living president, 96, returned to the home he lived in before the White House that he built in 1961. Carter and wife Rosalynn grew up in Plains, Georgia, and continue to live a quiet life there, dedicated to service and humanitarian work in their modest $167,000 two-bedroom rancher.

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Jimmy Carter

Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty. Inset: Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty

"No matter where life has taken me, from the Governor's mansion to the White House, Plains has always been my home," Carter said in December after a number of local historic sites associated with him were officially dubbed a national park. "Rosalynn joins me in thanking Senator Perdue, Congressman Bishop, and the Georgia delegation for helping preserve my family's legacy."

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Ronald Reagan

Credit: Paul Harris/Liaison/Getty. Inset: Harry Langdon/Getty

A Hollywood actor before he became the president in 1981, Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy returned to Los Angeles after his two terms in office. There, they purchased a 7,192-square-foot, three-bedroom estate that was built in 1954, according to Zillow.

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Ronald Reagan

Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation/Getty

Perched on 1.29 acres of land, the home most recently sold for $15 million in 2016.

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George H. W. Bush

Credit: David Valdez/White House/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty

The 41st President of the United States and his wife Barbara split their time between two homes after the White House: their estate in Houston, Texas, and their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Both were home bases for their extended family, including their 17 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.

Bush died at the age of 94 on November 30, 2018.

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George H. W. Bush

Credit: Newsmakers/Getty

Here, the extended Bush clan is pictured in front of their summer retreat in Maine, where they annually spent May-October. The oceanside home, jutting out from Walker's Point, features nine bedrooms, a pool and a tennis court.

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Bill Clinton

Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty

In 2001, Bill and Hillary Clinton moved into a white house of their own — a $1.7 million Dutch Colonial estate in Chappaqua, New York, according to the New York Times.

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Bill Clinton

Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty

Mr. Clinton gave Oprah a tour in 2004 of the eleven-room abode, which features five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a barn, a pool, and his collection of rocking chairs.

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George W. Bush

Credit: Rick Wilking/Getty. Inset: Stock Montage/Getty

After two terms in office, George W. Bush returned to his beloved ranch in Crawford, Texas. As he vacationed there often throughout his presidency, the residence was nicknamed the Western White House.

George and Laura Bush completed the three-bedroom Prairie Chapel Ranch in 2001, and gave Architectural Digest a tour in 2014.

The one-story limestone home features an adjacent two-suite guesthouse and a 40-mile network of bike trails, along with a secluded swimming pool and a private 10-acre lake stocked with bass.

“We wanted the house to fit into the landscape,” Mrs. Bush told the outlet. The former first lady collaborated with Texas architect David Heymann to ensure the home is nestled in a grove of live oaks and cedar elms. “It’s slightly motel-ish, but we love that.”

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Barack Obama

Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty. Inset: Ethan Miller/Getty

Barack and Michelle Obama stayed local after he left office in 2017, renting a 8,200-square-foot brick mansion for themselves and their daughters Sasha and Malia in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood of D.C. They eventually purchased the nine-bedroom, eight-and-a-half bath home, which previously belonged to Joe Lockhart, the former White House Press Secretary for President Bill Clinton.

Lockhart bought the 1928 mansion in 2014 for $5,295,000, according to public record.

As they moved in, Obama announced that the family planned to stay at least until daughter Sasha graduated high school, which she did in 2019. They currently still live at the property.

The family also purchased a 7-bedroom home on 29 acres in Martha's Vineyard for $11.75 million in 2019.

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Donald Trump

Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty

Trump departed Washington, D.C. for his private Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just hours before his successor, President Joe Biden, was sworn in.

Ahead of his move, sources told PEOPLE that the staff at the oceanside club have been preparing for Trump's arrival, renovating his 2,000-square-foot residence at the club, which he purchased in the '80s.

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Donald Trump

Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty. Inset: Zach Gibson - Pool/Getty

Local residents have argued that Trump cannot legally live there, due to an agreement he signed after purchasing the resort, in which he promised that no one would stay at the property for longer than seven days at a time.

The sprawling 128-room mansion was built by American cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1927, and features a number of her antiques, as well as ornate gold decor and high ceilings.

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By Sophie Dodd @sickofsuburbia

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Life After the White House: See the Homes Where Former Presidents Lived After Their Time in Office

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Harry Truman

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Harry Truman

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Jacqueline Kennedy

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Jacqueline Kennedy

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Lyndon B. Johnson

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Lyndon B. Johnson

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Richard Nixon

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Gerald Ford

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Gerald Ford

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Jimmy Carter

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Jimmy Carter

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Ronald Reagan

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Ronald Reagan

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George H. W. Bush

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George H. W. Bush

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Bill Clinton

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Bill Clinton

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George W. Bush

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Barack Obama

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Donald Trump

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Donald Trump

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