President Chester A. Arthur Birthplace, Vermont

Though Chester Arthur was not actually born here, this site was thought to be his birthplace for years. A large granite monument was installed by the state in 1903. Its dedication was attended by a long list of dignitaries, who had come from far away to this remote spot five miles north of Fairfield, Vermont, near the Canadian border. Carved in stone are the words “On this spot stood the cottage where was born Chester A. Arthur the twenty-first president of the United States.” Years later, in 1953, that cottage actually appeared, in the form of a replica that was based on an 1880 photograph of the alleged birthplace house. However, while the photograph likely was of a house that stood on this location, and that house was once occupied by the young future president, his parents didn’t move into it until 1830, a year after he was born. In 2002, the state put up a new sign at the alleged birthplace site to help clear things up, saying “…When he was less than a year old his parents moved to a new parsonage built at this site.” Five miles away, in town, the state put up another new sign, saying: “…Although the exact location is debated, Chester A. Arthur was born on Oct. 5, 1829, in Fairfield.” The uncertainty about Arthur’s birthplace dates back to at least 1880, when he was on the Republican ticket to be Garfield’s vice president, and the Democrats hired an attorney to dig into his past. He concluded that Chester Arthur was born in Dunham, Quebec, where his parents had met and were married, and published a book, “How a British Subject Became President of the United States.” By then Arthur had already been president for three years. The birthplace replica houses displays that address these uncertainties which challenge its very reason for existing in the first place. It may be unique as a museum in this regard. Chester Arthur is buried in the family plot at the Rural Cemetery in Albany, New York. His own tomb lists his birth date as 1830, not 1829, literally taking the uncertainties of his birth to his grave.