The following videos provide visitors with the opportunity to view the entire second floor of the Eisenhower home as well as the five rooms off the back staircase. You can watch the entire tour at once or choose to visit each room individually. We hope you enjoy your visit.
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Visit the entire second floor of the Eisenhower home as well as the five rooms off the back staircase, all in one video.
- Duration:
- 12 minutes, 27 seconds
Individual Room Video Tours
This tour will start on the second floor at the top of the main stairs.
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Mamie’s mother, Elivera Carlson Doud, used this room when she stayed at the farm. After her death in 1960, it served as a guest room.
- Duration:
- 51 seconds
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This served as a television room for the grandchildren. Mamie used it as a sitting room after Ike passed away. The books here are part of the General’s personal library found throughout the house. The three volumes with the frayed brown covers on the bottom shelf are his yearbooks from West Point, The Howitzer. Ike finished painting the snow covered landscape, Winter, St. Louis Creek, while recovering from his 1955 heart attack.
- Duration:
- 55 seconds
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Ike's bathroom is decorated in a manly quasi army-like green, his towels are monogrammed D-D-E and his transistor radio is on the shelf above the toilet.
- Duration:
- 40 seconds
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This small and sparsely decorated room served as General Eisenhower’s dressing room. Following his 1955 heart attack, he used the room for afternoon naps which he took daily under doctor’s orders. Many of the General’s westerns occupy the bookshelf. The portrait he painted of his two oldest grandchildren hangs over the bed.
- Duration:
- 39 seconds
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The bathroom reflects Mrs. Eisenhower’s eye for detail and her love of the color pink. Her love of the color pink helped make it one of the most popular colors of the 1950s.
- Duration:
- 35 seconds
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In the adjoining dressing room, Mamie’s pearls and perfumes cover the dressing table, her brightly colored outfits pack the closet, and assorted hats in hat boxes line the shelves. Ike’s West Point photo sitting on the dressing table is inscribed: “To the dearest, sweetest girl in the world...”
- Duration:
- 44 seconds
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Mamie believed that once a woman reached the age of 50 she was entitled to stay in bed until noon. She took advantage of that entitlement here in the master bedroom. She met with staff members, wrote correspondence, planned her social agenda, and visited with close friends, all while in bed propped up on pillows. After the General died, she kept his side of the bed piled with books, stationery, and candy so it would not seem so empty. Mamie’s devotion to family and friends is evident from the many photographs on display.
- Duration:
- 1 minute, 8 seconds
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Halfway down the hallway is the linen closet stocked with towels, sheets, and pillowcases. Many of them are pink and monogrammed M-E-D, Mamie Doud Eisenhower.
- Duration:
- 31 seconds
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Some of the Eisenhowers’ earliest furniture was used in this room by Mamie’s personal maid, Rose Wood. The maid’s room, along with the kitchen and pantry downstairs, is in the portion of the original house salvaged when the Eisenhowers rebuilt their home.
- Duration:
- 36 seconds
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Visiting friends and family often spent the night here as did Prime Minister Nehru of India in 1956. He and Eisenhower conducted private talks out on the porch. There is a bathroom and a dressing room between the Yellow and Red guest rooms.
- Duration:
- 57 seconds
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The four paintings in the hallway, painted by General Eisenhower, add a personal touch. Two are flowers and vases and two are small winter scenes. The Red room, like the Yellow, is furnished with twin beds. There's a Westinghouse radio on the bed stand and flashlight by the bed.
- Duration:
- 59 seconds
The tour continues down the back stairs of the Eisenhower home.
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Sergeant John Moaney and his wife, Delores, were employed as the valet and cook. Sergeant Moaney washed, repaired, and ironed the General’s clothes in the laundry room. He did all his sewing on an old Singer sewing machine that he brought from overseas after the war and kept in his room. Moaney would also sit here and clean the General’s golf clubs after the General returned from a round at the Gettysburg Country Club.
- Duration:
- 37 seconds
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John Moaney first served on the General’s personal staff in 1942. During the war, Moaney was in charge of Eisenhower’s Scottie dogs, so he and the General became fast friends. At war’s end, Moaney asked to stay on Eisenhower’s staff. He took care of the General’s clothes, cleaned house and served meals. Delores Moaney cooked and did the household shopping. They both continued to work for Mrs. Eisenhower long after the General died.
- Duration:
- 1 minute
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The kitchen, with its linoleum counters and Crosley refrigerator in the pantry, reflects the 1950s style more than any other room in the house. General Eisenhower enjoyed cooking and pursued this hobby both here and at the barbecue outside. Soups, stews, and Pennsylvania Dutch breakfasts were some of his specialties. Mamie was not quite as adept in the kitchen and liked to joke that she could only make fudge and mayonnaise. Most of the meals were prepared by Delores Moaney. She seldom prepared gourmet dishes, however, since Ike and Mamie preferred basic American fare.
- Duration:
- 59 seconds
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The Eisenhowers’ wish to preserve part of the original farmhouse is evident in the den. The old fireplace and oven were salvaged from the a summer kitchen which stood near the house. Salvaged wood from the old house was reused in the construction of the floor and ceiling. Ike spent many relaxing hours reading and playing bridge here with friends. The Civil War pike and musket above the fireplace, the red lamp decorated with fishing flies, and the art books in the bookcase reflect Ike’s interests.
- Duration:
- 1 minute, 6 seconds
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Used for conducting farm and presidential business, this room and the den became a “temporary White House” while President Eisenhower recuperated from his 1955 heart attack. The desk is a reproduction of one used by George Washington. The gift was made with pine boards recovered from the White House during its 1948-1952 renovation. Eisenhower received a phone call here on May 7, 1960, informing him that the Soviet Union not only shot down the U-2 spy plane, but also captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The room’s simplicity reflects the down-to-earth nature that served Eisenhower so well as one of the world’s great soldiers and statesmen.
- Duration:
- 36 seconds
Can't Visit Us in Person Right Now? Tour the Site Virtually with Google!
Visit the Google Arts and Culture webpage for Eisenhower National Historic Site to visit virtually through a 3D tour of the site. Almost 200 artifacts are also included on the page to explore.
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