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Jimmy Carter National Historical Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Former U.S. National Historic Site
U.S. National Historical Park
Georgia Register of Historic Places
Jimmy Carter National Historical Park Visitor Center
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Location	300 N. Bond St., Plains, Georgia
Coordinates	32°01′50″N 84°25′06″W / 32.0304393°N 84.4182473°W / 32.0304393; -84.4182473
Area	71 acres (29 ha)
Visitation	51,580 (2018)
Website	Jimmy Carter National Historical Park
NRHP reference No.	01000272
Significant dates
Designated NHS	December 23, 1987
Designated NHP	2021

The Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, located in Plains, Georgia, preserves sites associated with Jimmy Carter (1924–2024), 39th president of the United States. These include his residence, boyhood farm, school, and the town railroad depot, which served as his campaign headquarters during the 1976 election. The building which used to be Plains High School (opened in 1921 and closed in 1979) serves as the park's museum and visitor center. When Carter lived in Plains, the area surrounding the residence was under the protection of the United States Secret Service. The residence is also the burial site of Carter and his wife, First Lady Rosalynn Carter (1927–2023); the residence and gravesites of the Carters will not open to the public until sometime after Jimmy Carter's state funeral and burial in January 2025.

The Carters returned to Plains in 1981. The former President and First Lady pursued many of the goals of his administration through the Carter Center in Atlanta, which has programs to alleviate human suffering and to promote human rights and world peace. Carter taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, which is open to the public.

It was established in 1987 by Pub. L. 100–206 as Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and renamed as a national historical park in 2021.

Visitor center and museum

The former Plains High School, which both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter attended, now serves as the park's visitor center and museum. It features a classroom, principal's office, and auditorium which have been restored to look as they would have when Jimmy Carter attended. An exact replica of the Resolute desk, which Jimmy Carter brought back to the Oval Office to use as his presidential desk, is exhibited, as is his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. Other rooms feature exhibits that explain the lives of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and a short video focuses on the life of Jimmy Carter according to his friends, neighbors, and family.

Boyhood home and farm

The farm in rural Archery where Jimmy lived from age four in 1928 until he left for college in 1941 has been restored to its appearance before electricity was installed in 1938.

Campaign headquarters

The former Plains Train Depot, where Carter headquartered his presidential campaign, now serves as a museum focusing on the 1976 Presidential Campaign and Election. It features exhibits which highlight Jimmy Carter's campaign for President. The train depot operated from 1888 until 1951, when all public transportation to and from the area ceased.

Carter home and burial site

The long-time home of the Carters at 209 Woodland Drive, while not open to the public, is a part of the park. The Carters lived in the home from 1961. During his presidency, it was used as his Summer White House.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are buried on the grounds of the house near a pond and by a willow tree on the lawn of the property. Jimmy Carter was buried next to his wife on January 9, 2025. The intent is for the National Park Service (NPS) to turn the house into a museum and open it to public tours.

Photos

Plains train depot

• Plains train depot, which served as the 1976 Carter campaign headquarters
• Interior of the campaign headquarters

Visitor center and museum

• Carter's high school, now a museum and visitor center
• Detail of classroom
• Auditorium
• Historical marker

Carter boyhood farm

• Map of farm
• A water pump powered by a windmill
• Barn and old farm equipment
• Blacksmith shop

• Earl and Lillian Carter home
• Detail of front porch
• Detail of dining room
• Detail of bedroom
• Detail of bedroom

• Carter family country store
• Detail of country store
• Rachel and Jack Clark's tenant house
• Tenant house, main room
• Tenant house, kitchen

See also

• List of residences of presidents of the United States
• Presidential memorials in the United States

Sources

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Jimmy Carter National Historical Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
3. "Park Statistics - Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.
4. ^ "Jimmy Carter National Historic Site - Things To Do". Retrieved June 20, 2012.
5. "Jimmy Carter National Historic Site - Things To Know Before You Come". Retrieved June 20, 2012.
6. "Jimmy Carter National Historic Site - Hours". Retrieved June 20, 2012.
7. ^ "Presidential Avenue: Jimmy Carter". Archived from the original on December 31, 2003. Retrieved June 20, 2012.
8. ^ Kevin Sullivan; Mary Jordan (August 17, 2018). "The un-celebrity president". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
9. "A guide to funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter". AP News. December 31, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2025.
10. Rob Hotakainen (November 13, 2019). "Jimmy Carter, Park Service prepare for 'life after death'". E&E News. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2021.

External links

• Official Park Service site
• "Life Portrait of Jimmy Carter", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, broadcast from the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, December 3, 1999
• Jimmy Carter's Boyhood Home
• President Jimmy Carter Motorcade drives through Plains, Georgia, January 4, 2025 on C-SPAN

• Media related to Jimmy Carter National Historical Park at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Jimmy Carter
39th President of the United States (1977–1981) 76th Governor of Georgia (1971–1975) Georgia State Senator (1963–1967)
Presidency (timeline)	Transition Inauguration Timeline 1977 1978 1979 1980 January 1981 Political positions Judicial appointments controversies Executive Actions Executive Order 12036 Executive Order 12086 Executive Order 12148 Executive Order 12170 Executive Order 12172 Carter bonds Rabbit incident Catoctin Mountain Park Run Carter Doctrine Camp David Accords Egypt–Israel peace treaty Torrijos–Carter Treaties Iran hostage crisis Operation Eagle Claw Canadian Caper Engagement with Ruhollah Khomeini 1979 oil crisis Support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War Diplomatic relations with China Goldwater v. Carter Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 Senior Executive Service Strategic Arms Limitation Talks International trips 1980 Summer Olympics boycott Cannabis policy Community Reinvestment Act Airline Deregulation Act Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 Clean Water Act of 1977 Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act Federal Reserve Reform Act of 1977 Electronic Fund Transfer Act Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 Right to Financial Privacy Act Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act Superfund Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 Solar power at the White House Three Mile Island accident Presidential transition of Ronald Reagan
Speeches	Moral Equivalent of War Island of Stability A Crisis of Confidence State of the Union Addresses 1978 1979 1980 1981
Elections	Georgia gubernatorial elections 1966 1970 Presidential campaigns 1976 1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries 1976 1980 Democratic National Conventions 1972 1976 1980 Presidential debates 1976 1980 Presidential elections 1976 1980
Post-presidency	Carter Center Presidential Library and Museum Habitat for Humanity Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project The Elders Jimmy Carter National Historical Park Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter House Nairobi Agreement, 1999 One America Appeal Continuity of Government Commission Death and state funeral
Books	Everything to Gain (1987) The Hornet's Nest (2003) Our Endangered Values (2006) Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006) reaction and commentary Beyond the White House (2007) We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land (2009) White House Diary (2010) A Call to Action (2014) A Full Life (2015)
Awards and honors	Nobel Peace Prize Presidential Medal of Freedom Freedom of the City Silver Buffalo Award Philadelphia Liberty Medal United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights Hoover Medal Christopher Award Carter–Menil Human Rights Prize Grammy Award
Legacy	Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue (1976) USS Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter National Historical Park (1987) Georgia State Capitol statue (1994)
Related	Plains, Georgia Birthplace Home Mary Prince (nanny) UFO incident Jimmy Carter (2002 television documentary) Man from Plains (2007 documentary) Eradication of dracunculiasis "Mush from the Wimp"
Family	Rosalynn Carter (wife) Jack Carter (son) Amy Carter (daughter) Jason Carter (grandson) James Earl Carter Sr. (father) Lillian Gordy Carter (mother) Gloria Carter Spann (sister) Ruth Carter Stapleton (sister) Billy Carter (brother) Emily Dolvin (aunt) Hugh Carter (cousin)
← Gerald Ford Ronald Reagan → Category

v t e National Historical Parks of the United States
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Adams Appomattox Court House Blackstone River Valley Boston Brown v. Board of Education Cane River Creole Cedar Creek and Belle Grove Chaco Culture Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Colonial Cumberland Gap Dayton Aviation Heritage First State Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie George Rogers Clark Golden Spike Harpers Ferry Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Homestead Hopewell Culture Independence Jean Lafitte Jimmy Carter Kalaupapa Kaloko-Honokōhau Keweenaw Klondike Gold Rush Lewis and Clark Lowell Lyndon B. Johnson Manhattan Project Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Martin Luther King Jr. Minute Man Morristown Natchez New Bedford Whaling New Orleans Jazz Nez Perce Ocmulgee Mounds Palo Alto Battlefield Paterson Great Falls Pecos Pullman Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau Reconstruction Era Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front Saint-Gaudens Salt River Bay San Antonio Missions San Francisco Maritime San Juan Island Saratoga Sitka Ste. Genevieve Thomas Edison Tumacácori Valley Forge War in the Pacific Weir Farm Women's Rights
Full alphabetical list

• National historical parks of the United States
• Protected areas of Sumter County, Georgia
• Presidential homes in the United States
• Jimmy Carter
• Historic house museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Museums in Sumter County, Georgia
• Presidential museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Protected areas established in 1987
• 1987 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Houses in Sumter County, Georgia
• National Register of Historic Places in Sumter County, Georgia
• National Historic Sites in Georgia (U.S. state)