While the White House is unlikely to hit the market anytime soon, a past president’s former off-white home is in need of a new resident in chief.
The final home of the Caldwell-born commander-in-chief, the late President Grover Cleveland, was listed earlier this year for $5.95 million. At 15 Hodge Road in Princeton, the home was selected by his wife Frances Cleveland after the two decided in 1896 to make the New Jersey town theirs in retirement.
Cleveland named the home “Westland” to honor his close friend, Princeton University Professor Andrew F. West. Originally built in 1854, the home was upgraded by Cleveland and today features “incredible architecture, tall ceilings and wonderful natural light,” said Maura Mills, the listing agent with Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International-Princeton.
“Its comfortable floor plan is every bit as conducive to modern living as it is to grand entertaining,” Mills said.
His post-White House home was built to mimic another Princeton landmark, “Morven,” a Georgian mansion built by the Stockton family in the 18th century. Cleveland, who lived in the home from March 1897 until his June 1908 death, added to Westland. He tacked on the two-story wing holding spare bedrooms and his requisite billiards room. Other additions came later, as did a key subtraction. Part of the home was detached and moved to create a new home in the rear of the property, according to “The Presidents,” a National Parks Service series edited by Robert G. Ferris and published in 1976. Today, Westland sits on 1.6 acres.
Meant to entertain, Westland has twin parlors and a manicured backyard with gardens, stone patios and an inground pool. The 2.5-story stucco home is covered in a yellow hue and clad with white trim. Insider, white walls, paneling and trim contrast with stained hardwood floors. Raised plaster ceilings, oversized windows and carved mantels feature throughout. A modern kitchen and bathrooms offer 21st century conveniences.
A New Jersey native, Cleveland left the presidency for the final time on March 4, 1897. Declining invitations for congratulatory receptions, he went from Washington D.C. to Cape Charles, Virginia to hunt, fish and relax.
Newspaper editorial staffs in Red Bank, Camden, Montclair and more celebrated his imminent arrival in New Jersey, but not for any reason Cleveland would have taken pride in hearing. Cleveland’s handling of the depression during his second term and his policies alienated many, leading to his party’s nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896.
“Passaic people, as far as their local interests are concerned, have good reason to rejoice over the change of administration,” The Passaic Daily News wrote in a March 1897 editorial. “The city has fared worse under the presidency of Grover Cleveland than in any period of equal length since its foundation.”
Cleveland arrived at his new Princeton home during the last week of March. It was the first time he had visited Westland since he bought it, the Penn’s Grove Record reported.
Once in Princeton, Cleveland settled in. He resumed work as an attorney and became a regular in the front-row during services at University Chapel, according to local newspaper reports. He hosted card games with university professors at Westland. University students serenaded him on birthdays and drove victory parades to the house after football games, according to “The Presidents.” Cleveland himself never graduated college.
Raised the son of a Presbyterian minister in upstate New York, Cleveland left school to help support his family after his father died in 1853. Two years later, he started working for his family as a clerk and eventually gained a job at a law firm, where he learned the trade and became an attorney.
An Erie County sheriff in the early 1870s, Cleveland’s rise to the presidency came quickly after he was sworn in as Mayor of Buffalo in 1882. Less than a year later, Cleveland was elected governor of New York. And, two years after that, he secured the presidency with the backing of Democrats and reform-minded Republicans, known as “Mugwumps,” who opposed his challenger, James G. Blaine of Maine.
Cleveland’s administration provided little in the way of special favors for economic groups. He blocked federal land grants to railroad companies, a bill to help soldiers with non-service-related disabilities and aid for drought-stricken farmers. He also pushed for lower tariffs on imported products, a move that may have hurt his re-election prospects and led to his 1888 loss to Benjamin Harrison in the Electoral College, according to White House Historical Association records.
Once reelected four years later, Cleveland presided over a vastly different America. He faced a severe economic depression and prioritized resolving the U.S. Department of the Treasury crisis over addressing business failures, farm mortgage foreclosures and unemployment. He secured the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with Wall Street’s help, maintained the Treasury’s gold reserve. Still, since he was ultimately unable to end the impact of the depression on the general public, many turned against Cleveland and his dedication to the gold standard.
