
George Washington’s bedroom, his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.
It’s the most private space in the home of us all, the bedroom.
And yet, like everything else, when it comes to the Presidents of the United States, nothing is sacred – not even a peek inside their bedrooms and snapshot of the very beds where they slept at one point or another.
Whether it was a bed they used merely to rest in (Taft) or used in one of several homes they owned during the course of their lives (F.D.R), or even the one where they were born (Cleveland) or tossed and turned in while dreaming of the White House as kids (Hoover, Clinton), the beds they occupied, the very pillows upon which rested our Heads of State have been carefully chronicled, preserved – and even sold (Fillmore) for full public exposure.
Here now for the first time in the history of civilization is a peek inside the sleeping spaces of all the Presidents…all except for one.
The process of gathering these images, nearly all of which are from historic sites or scanned from old postcards or garnered from Internet searches, failed to find even a scrap of duvet cover used by the one President who, without being too prurient here, certainly enjoyed the bed.
Presidential pop quiz kids will know whose bed is missing in a snap – with this one clue, but others will have to figure it out: he fathered more children than any other.

Two Presidents shared this bed….not at the same time of course. The bedroom of John and Abigail Adams in their Quincy, Massachusetts home was later used by their son, sixth President John Quincy Adams and his wife Louisa.

James Madison’s bedroom on the first floor of his Virginia estate Montpelier.

James Monroe’s recently restored bedroom at his Ash Lawn estate in Virginia.

Andrew Jackson’s bedroom at his Hermitage estate in Tennessee.

In his Lindenwald estate in the Hudson River Valley, Martin Van Buren’s bedroom. Except for Jefferson’s unique wall bed, Van Buren’s is the first without a canopy

William and Anna Harrison had separate beds in the same bedroom in their, Indiana home Grouselands.

The solid mahogany bed used by James Polk with his wife Sarah was later used by her as a widow, now can be seen in the Polk Ancestral Home in Columbia, Tennessee.

Zachary Taylor’s bed on display in the James Madison Museum in Orange, Virginia. virginiaplantation.wordpress.com

Franklin Pierce’s bed, where he died, and which was destroyed in a late 20th century fire.

James Buchanan’s bedroom in his Lancaster, Pennsylvania estate Wheatland.

The real bed of Abraham Lincoln, in his Springfield, Illinois home. Unlike the famous Lincoln bed in the White House, it is certain that he slept in this one.

The bedroom of Andrew Johnson in his Tennessee home, his wife Eliza’s portrait on the wall above; she had her own bedroom.

The Galena, Illinois home bedroom of Ulysses S. Grant.

The lavish Ohio bedroom of Rutherford Hayes reflected his great wealth.

In their Ohio farmhouse, James Garfield slept with his wife in a second floor bedroom, which was warmer in winter….

…and one on the first floor, which was cooler in the summertime.

Chester Arthur’s bed is preserved in a Colorado Springs museum and was later owned by his playboy son Alan, a local resident.

The first bed Grover Cleveland knew – the one he was born in.

William McKinley and his wife shared this White House bedroom using beds they brought from home in Canton, Ohio with metal frames, believed at the time to be a preventative measure to contracting influenza.

Theodore Roosevelt filled his large Sagamore Hill bed, covered in a quilt from the Japanese Emperor.

The bed used by William Howard Taft to rest his weary bones during a 1912 re-election campaign stop in the Coffeyville, Kansas home of the Brown family.

The Washington, D.C. bedroom of stroke-victim and former President Woodrow Wilson.

Warren Harding slept in the same bedroom with his wife Florence, in their matching birdseye wood twin beds.

Even as President and with his wife, Calvin Coolidge continued to sleep in his childhood bed in his family’s Vermont farmhouse.

While Herbert Hoover’s parents slept in the bed, the adolescent future President slept in the trundle bed beneath them; it was a humble beginning for a later millionaire and global humanitarian.

The bed in which Franklin D. Roosevelt died while President, at his Warm Springs, Georgia cottage.

What began as his dressing room in his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania farmhouse was used by Dwight Eisenhower to nap daily on doctor’s orders, following his 1955 heart attack.

John F. Kennedy only spent two weekends in this bed, shared with Jackie, in their Virginia horse country weekend home Wexford.

Although he shared the large connecting bedroom with his wife, President Kennedy also kept his own bedroom in the White House as did Presidents from Hoover to Nixon.

President Lyndon B. Johnson in bed with his wife as they watch television reports of violence outside the National Democratic Convention, August 28, 1968.

Richard Nixon’s Western White House bedroom at La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California.

Gerald Ford’s bed at his Rancho Mirage, California home as it looked at the time the house was on the market.

While its unclear how long or when he slept in it, Jimmy Carter made this bed which was later sold. and is now in private hands. (photo by Anatole Burkin, finewoodworking.com)

President George Bush shares his bed in the family’s Kennebunkport, Maine summer home with his wife – and their grandchildren.

Bill Clinton’s bedroom in his Hope, Arkansas boyhood home.

The Kailua, Hawaii bedroom used by the President and Mrs. Obama during several of their annual vacations to his home state.

The bedroom used by the President and Mrs. Obama in a Martha’s Vineyard home they used during one of their summer vacations there. (cdn.frontdoor.com)
Categories: Presidential Homes, Presidents







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Dear Mr. Anthony,
Was there a practical reason for having a canopy on the bed’s?
Thanks –
David//Chicago
P.S.
How is Hudson?
Good question David – honestly don’t know. It is interesting though to see how the beds changed over time, isn’t it? As for Hudson: rambunctious, willful, attentive, loving, demanding, happy as ever – thanks for asking.
What a clever post! Loved being able to be the fly on the wall. Hate to say it, but I said, “Oh how pretty” on the Reagan bedroom 😉 and I guess Herbert Hoover’s parents didn’t have much of a sex life. 🙂
I like your comments. Well Hoover had siblings, so…..
I saw a special on Monticello on Cspan a few years back and they showed Jefferson’s bed. One of the hosts
asked the guide why the bed was so short since Jefferson was a taller man. He would not fit in the bed shown. The guide noted that in Jefferson’s day people sleep sitting up. They thought that lying down was a sign of being dead.
Thanks John – that is something I never knew. I remember the letter Millard Fillmore wrote describing the painful last days leading to the death of his wife Abigail and how she was forced to stand and then finally allowed to bed but had to remain seated upright. She still died.