President Jimmy Carter's Childhood Home

Jimmy Carter grew up 2.5 miles

west of Plains, Georgia.

This area is known as Archery.  When Jimmy was growing up on the farm, there were two to four white families and about twenty-five black families.  

James Earl Carter & Lillian 
Gordy Carter moved here in
1928 & raised their children,
Jimmy, Gloria, Ruth & Billy
on this farm.






One of the audio clips in the house is of President Carter recalling that he loved to go to Plains when he was a young boy.  To him, Plains was the "big city."

The spacious screened-in

porch was a comfortable

place to be on a warm

evening.

The Carter family furnishings were dispersed over the years.  The house has been furnished in the styles of the 1920s through 1940s.

The living room has a piano

& a battery powered radio.

There is an audio clip of

President Carter reminiscing

about times spent listening

to the radio in the evening.

The house was connected to the electric grid in 1938.  

The dining room

The kitchen

The breakfast area

James Earl & Lillian's bedroom

The crib is for the youngest, Billy.

Gloria & Ruth shared

a bedroom.

Jimmy's bedroom

A copy of A Boy's Fortune

by Horatio Alger, Jr. sits

on the foot of the bed.

Jimmy & his Dad

played tennis.

The Carter Store is adjacent
the house.

Small country stores didn't

have regular hours.

An audio clip at the store is of President Carter reminiscing that if anyone knocked at Carter family door at dinner time and asked to have the store opened, his father would toss the key to him.  The future President would go to the store and wait on customers while his dinner sat and got cold.

This wind driven water pump
made life on the farm a lot
easier.

Before the Carters installed this,
water was hand pumped for the
house & for the farm animals.







The Carters grew Peanuts, Cotton and Sugarcane as cash crops.  The crops from the garden were for the Carters and the Jack Clark, the farm supervisor, and his family.

Just past the garden is

the Blacksmith Shop.

Farm life required fabricating
& repairing parts for
farm equipment.

This building was reconstructed.

The barn

Horse's halters hang on
the sides of stables.

Jack & Rebecca Clark lived

here with their family.

The Clarks lived very
simply.







Jimmy stayed with the Clark family when his parents went out of town.  His bed at the Clark house was a sack filled with corncobs that was laid out on the floor each night.

The family spent most of

their time in the main

room of the house.

The bedroom includes
a display with pictures
& toys that were
played with on the farm.






Jimmy worked the fields and played with the Clark children.  He was keenly aware of the social constraints he and his friends lived with in the 1930s and 1940s.

Jimmy graduated from Plains High School in 1941, studied at Georgia Institute of Technology for one year before leaving for the US Naval Academy in 1943.

The lessons learned on the farm were taken with him as Jimmy ran for Georgia State Senate, Governor and President in 1976 and 1980.