Peek inside former President Jimmy Carter’s peanut farm in Archery, Georgia. Hulton Archives/Getty Images; EWY Media/Shutterstock; BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
- Jimmy Carter grew up on a peanut farm in Archery, Georgia, with no electricity or running water.
- Carter helped harvest and sell cotton, peanuts, sugar cane, and corn before going to college.
- Carter Farm is now a historic site where visitors can see his childhood home and bedroom.
Former President Jimmy Carter grew up on his family’s peanut farm in Georgia from the age of four until he left college.
Jimmy Carter on his peanut farm. PhotoQuest/Getty Images
The Carters were one of the few landowning families in archery.
The Carters were also the only white family in town, according to the New York Times. Despite gaining status in a rural town of just 200 people, the family still grew up in relative poverty.
Carter’s family didn’t have running water until he was 11, and they didn’t have electricity until three years later. Carter lived on the farm from the age of 4 until he went to college in 1941.
“The greatest day of my life wasn’t the inauguration as President, [and] it wasn’t even marrying Rosalynn — it was when they turned on the power,” Carter said, according to the Times.
Carter received a bachelor’s degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and served as a submariner in the United States Navy before entering politics. When he became president in 1977, he turned the farm over to a blind trust and allowed a third party to take control of it while he was in the White House to avoid conflicts of interest.
When he left the White House in 1981, the law firm managing the trust announced that the farm was $1 million in debt due to drought and changes in management, and the Carters sold it, according to the National Park Service.
Today, visitors can tour Carter’s peanut farm, which has been converted into a historic site.
A vintage sign in Plains, Georgia advertises tours of the town and the Carter family’s peanut farm. Robert Alexander/Getty Images
Because this is a living museum, visitors can push buttons located throughout the historic site to hear accounts of Jimmy Carter’s experiences growing up on the farm. Guided tours are also offered on weekends.
Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm was owned by Earl Carter, Jimmy’s father, from 1928 to 1949. After his death in 1953, Jimmy took over running the farm.
Jimmy Carter’s childhood farm. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The farm is located in Archery, Georgia about 3 miles from the nearby town of Plains.
The Carter family’s peanut farm, known as Boyhood Farm, is a popular tourist destination in the area.
Jimmy Carter National Historic Site Boyhood Farm entrance sign. EWY Media/Shutterstock
Many of the farm’s original buildings remain, from Earl Carter’s commissioner to Carter’s childhood home.
Visitors can also tour the Clark House, once occupied by tenants Jack and Rachel Clark, who worked on the Carter farm. Jimmy Carter spent a lot of time with the Clarks growing up, to the point that the Clarks created a sleeping palette filled with either corn husks or wheat straw that he would sleep on when his parents were out of town.
The farm and Carter’s childhood home have been restored to how they would have looked in 1937 before electricity was installed in 1938.
Jimmy Carter’s childhood farm. Win McNamee/Getty Images
In 1994, the National Park Service acquired Carter’s three-bedroom, 17-acre childhood home of the once 360-acre farm to create the historic site.
The interior of Carter’s childhood home has been completely restored to how it would have looked in the 1930’s.
The dining room in Jimmy Carter’s childhood farmhouse. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Furnishings inside the house never belonged to the Carters, but were chosen to reflect the time period and resemble what would have been used when the Carters lived there.
In addition to a more formal dining room, visitors can tour the family kitchen, breakfast room, living room, bedroom of Jimmy Carter’s parents, Earl and Lillian, and the bedroom shared by his two sisters, Gloria and Ruth, in the farmhouse.
One of the main attractions at Boyhood Farm is Jimmy Carter’s nursery.
Jimmy Carter’s children’s room. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Carter also had a younger brother, Billy, who slept in his parents’ room until Jimmy left the farm in 1941 to go to college.
Earl Carter also built a clay tennis court outside of the Carter farmhouse.
The clay tennis court at Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Carter has enjoyed the sport throughout his life, particularly during his tenure in the White House, but it was here that he first learned the game playing games with his father.
The Commissioner is a stone’s throw from the Carter farmhouse.
The Commissioner and the Windmill at Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm in Archery, Georgia. Marjie Lambert/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The commissioner was run by Earl Carter to make extra money, provide his renters and Archery residents with a place to buy needed supplies and sell gasoline to passing motorists, according to the National Park Service.
In the shop, people could buy agricultural and household goods.
The country shop or country shop on Jimmy Carter’s childhood farm. Marjie Lambert/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The store wasn’t always open during normal business hours, but Earl Carter made sure he opened it – or asked Jimmy to open it – to sell something.
A barn that once housed peanuts can also be visited.
Barn with wooden fence on Jimmy Carter’s childhood farm. EWY Media/Shutterstock
The property is still an active working farm and crops are still grown regularly throughout the year. Crops still grown on the farm include sugar cane, cotton, corn, tomatoes and peanuts.
Honey bees, goats, chickens, mules and farm cats also call Boyhood Farm home.
After Jimmy Carter entered hospice care in February, residents of Plains, Georgia have gathered to await updates and hold vigil for the former president.
People walk past the signature and handprints of former US President Jimmy Carter. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
At 98, Carter is the nation’s oldest living president and longest-lived president. After his presidency, he and his wife, Rosalynn, moved back to their two-bedroom home in Plains.
According to the New York Times, residents of the small town have kept vigil after he is in a hospice.
Jeff Clements, part owner of the Buffalo Peanut Company, a commercial peanut sheller and seed handler that owns the Carter family’s former warehouse, told the Times that “you wouldn’t have the downtown vibe that you have in Plains without the atmosphere.” carter. Clements also praised Carter’s humanitarian work.
“That he was still willing and not afraid to be a Christian and act Christianly today,” he said, “is more his legacy than anything he has done during his presidency.”
