Hail to the Chiefs

For the (real) start of primary season, 10 Boston political secrets

olitics in Massachusetts has long been a spectator sport. You’d be surprised to learn how many presidents have come from here—and which ones. (Go ahead, try to guess. We dare you.) Or, while we’re at it, what politicians have been immortalized for their roles in political scandals. Check out these 15 high-polling Massachusetts political secrets:

Where the father of our country watched over the birth of the U.S. Army.
 

The log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born? It’s here. So is the pen with which he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And the home of the last actress he ever saw.
 

The birthplace of the president you never knew was from here.
 

Where Barack Obama lived when he went to Harvard Law School (and how much he owed in Cambridge parking tickets by the time he left).
 

The birthplace of a president—and three of his siblings—who all met tragic ends. Where the matriarch of this political dynasty was born. And how to have a nice clam chowder at the table where he spent his Sundays.
 

The house where not one, but two presidents once lived.
 

Political foot fetish? Here’s where you can visit President Gerald Ford’s golf shoes and the running shoes used by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
 

The home of one vice president who has been immortalized as a cheater, and another who was suspected of leaking secrets to an enemy.
 

The summer White House of America’s fattest president—and who was the thinnest.
 

The home of a founder of the Republican Party