Maps

 

Directions to Jimmy Carter National Historical Park
This map is in jpeg format and shows how to get to Plains from Macon and Columbus, GA.

Driving Tour of Plains
This map is in jpeg format and shows the driving tour map of Plains, GA.

Walking Tour of Plains
This map is in jpeg format and shows the walking tour map of Plains, GA.

Map of Boyhood Farm
This map is in jpeg format and shows the walking trail at the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm.

 

Exploring Plains

Once you have arrived at Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, there are several areas to visit.
*=sites on driving tour

Visitor Center

300 N Bond St, Plains, GA 31780. Plains High School serves as the park museum and visitor center. Visitors find a restored and furnished classroom, principal's office, and auditorium. Other rooms feature exhibits that explain the Carters' lives in Plains, including political and business careers, education, family, and post-presidency. There is a 25-minute video that focuses on the life and accomplishments of Jimmy Carter told by those who know him best - his friends, neighbors, and family.

*Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm

402 Old Plains Hwy, Plains, GA 31780. When the Boyhood Farm became part of the park in 2000, the farm was restored to its appearance before electricity was installed in 1938. As you stroll along the walking path, stop and read the wayside exhibits at various points along the way. Push the buttons on the audio stations to listen to Jimmy Carter share stories about his childhood.

Today the farm hosts honeybees, goats, chickens, mules, and farm cats that are active on the Boyhood Farm. Crops are still grown periodically throughout the year which include sugarcane, cotton, corn, tomato, and peanuts.

Preservation District

The Jimmy Carter National Historical Park and Preservation District includes more than twenty structures significant to the lives of the 39th president and his wife, Rosalynn, in their hometown of Plains, Georgia. It is where Jimmy Carter went to school, went to church, met and married Rosalynn Smith, and launched his political career.

Plains Depot 100 West Main Street. The depot was completed in 1888. The town, then named Plains of Dura, moved a short distance south to take advantage of the new railroad and shortened its name to Plains. In 1919, 66 carloads of hogs and cows were shipped from the depot. In the 1920s, 6,000 to 10,000 bales of cotton were shipped annually from Plains. The building has been restored to its 1976 appearance as Carter’s campaign headquarters.

*Lebanon Cemetery Old Plains Highway. Earl and Lillian Carter are buried here, as are Jimmy’s sister Gloria, brother Billy, and other family members.

*Rylander House Old Plains Highway. Known locally as the Haunted House, Jimmy and Rosalynn rented this house from 1956 to 1961. Built about 1850, it is one of the country’s oldest houses. Generations of ghost stories have inspired its nickname.

Plains United Methodist Church Church and Thomas Streets. In 1945, while on leave from the US Naval Academy, Jimmy Carter went on a date with his sister Ruth’s best friend, Rosalynn Smith. After his graduation, they were married in this church on July 7, 1946.

Public Housing Unit 9-A Paschal and Thomas Streets. “Not having any assured income,” wrote Jimmy Carter about their return to PLains in 1953, “we applied for—and were assigned—an apartment in the new housing project in Plains”. The Carters lived in the apartments for a year. The complex still provided public housing.

Plains Baptist Church Bond and Paschal Streets. Jimmy Carter was baptized here, and his family attended this church when he was growing up. The Carters attended services here until they left for Washington, DC, in 1977.

Billy Carter’s Service Station Church Street. Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy owned and operated this gas station from 1972 to 1981. It was a popular place for visitors and members of the media.

Business District Main Street. These brick commercial buildings were built in the 1890s. Downtown Plains remains little changed since Jimmy Carter’s youth.

Plain Peanut Main Street and Rosalynn Carter Trail. Formerly the Carter Warehouse complex, this was the site of the family farm supply business as it expanded in the years before Jimmy Carter became president.

Lillian Carter Health & Rehabilitation Hospital Street. Lillian Gordy Carter worked as a registered nurse when this was the Wise Sanitarium, one of the first small Georgia hospitals to receive accreditation. Jimmy Carter was born here on October 1, 1924.

*Maranatha Baptist Church Buena Vista Road. The church was established when the congregation of the Plains Baptist Church split in the late 1970s. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have been members here since 1981.

Rosalynn Smith Carter Childhood Home Rosalynn Carter Trail. Home where Rosalynn lived until her marriage to Jimmy Carter.

St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church Bond Street. Rosalynn attended as a child with her grandmother, Rose Wise.

Plains Solar Collectors Installed on Carter land, the collectors generate about 60% of Plains’ energy demand.

*Smiling Peanut Buena Vista Road. From a Carter rally in Indiana, a reminder of the peanut imagery of the campaign.

The Carter Private Residence and Compound

The Carters have resided here since leaving the White House.
Note: The Carter Home and Garden property is closed to the public.

Other Jimmy Carter Sites

The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta (160 miles) includes The Carter Center and the Carter Library and Museum.