Van Buren Last Sitting President To Visit Here
COOPERSTOWN
Security surrounding the modern president may prevent what happened to Martin Van Buren, who, at the end of a
“large evening reception” in his honor in 1839 at Woodside Hall, became lost in the Greek Revival mansion’s large gardens at 1 Main St.
He “wandered about the grounds for a long time,” according to Birdsall’s “The Story of Cooperstown,” “finally coming back to the house just at the family were going to bed, for ‘a guide and a light.'”
President Obama, when he visits here Thursday, will likely be the first sitting president in the village since Van Buren. Craig Muder, spokesman for the Hall of Fame, where Obama will speak, said past and future presidents have visited the Hall, but never a sitting president.