Does being a presidential tourist mean I have to visit sites related to ALL the presidents? What about the deplorables?
- President: Donald Trump
- Location: Queens, New York, New York
- Operated By: MediSys Health Network
- When Visited: March 25th and 26, 2018
- Who with: My brother (Doug) and by myself
- Presidential Significance: Donald Trump was born here on 6/14/1946
- Pre-Visit Reading: Donald Trump’s Tweets
Normally, I’m on board with visiting any presidential history site, but, I’ll be honest, there have been a few times where I’ve stopped and thought to myself, “oh, wait, that president?” One of those times was earlier this year when I happened to be near Donald Trump’s birthplace, the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens. The purpose of this blog is to focus on my visits to historical sites and not my personal political views, but let’s just say Trump is not my favorite president.
I had solidified my philosophy on presidential tourism prior to this trip. Essentially, for myself, I feel if presidential tourism is “my thing,” I need to be inclusive of all presidents and that means not avoiding a site just because I don’t like the president.
Presidential libraries and burial sites are musts, regardless of the president. Beyond that, there is a little wiggle room. If I’m on a trip, it’s not always going to be logistically possible or convenient to visit all presidential history sites there may be in the area. In these cases, if my opinion of a president (good or bad) is factored into how I prioritize which sites to visit, that’s acceptable, as long it’s one of multiple factors and not the only reason I don’t visit a site.
So, when I was planning a long weekend to NYC for me and my brother (to see Hamilton!), I included an excursion to Long Island for some Teddy Roosevelt fun. To get there, we would take the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) through Queens. Queens. That’s where Donald Trump was born. Oh.
Remembering my established policy on this, I started to think of justifiable reasons not to visit other than just “it’s Trump.” Queens is big. Maybe it’s way out of the way and not near public transportation! Nope. It was on the way. Like, right on the way. Uh….maybe there’s not time? Not really. This was the night we had no set evening plans and it’s not like a hospital has a closing time we had to worry about… Hmmm… Being principled is hard sometimes.
Fortunately (I guess), the hospital was so very much “on the way” that we actually had a pretty good view of it out the window of our LIRR train. Good enough! That works!!!
Really and truly, this is an actual hospital, not an tourism location operated by the NPS or a historical society that offers an introductory video followed by a guided tour. Even if I had made more of an effort, I’m not sure I’d really be able to accomplish much other than taking a picture of the building. I haven’t found anything online to suggest they’ve turned the room he was born in into shrine or mini-museum or that there’s even anything displayed acknowledging an association with Donald Trump (the Trump Pavilion visible in the pics was actually named after his mom).
My brother and I observed the hospital twice, first going from Manhattan to Long Island, and then again on the return trip. I also saw it again the next day on my way to the airport (I passed by it a few days earlier on my way into Manhattan as well, but didn’t think to look for it at the time). So, if looking at something out the window counts, I guess I’ve technically visited Donald Trump’s birthplace more than than almost any other presidential site I’ve been to. Yay.
If there’s anybody out there reading this that wants to “visit” Trump’s birthplace like I did, you can take the LIRR between Jamaica Station in Queens and Penn Station in Manhattan. Sit in a window seat facing forward on the way to Manhattan (backwards on the way to Queens), with the window on your right. The hospital is just a few blocks from the Jamaica station so it will be either at the very beginning or very end of your trip. I was also able to see the hospital from the AirTrain between Jamaica and JFK, but the view was better from the LIRR train.
So, anyhow, that’s Trump’s birthplace.