James K. Polk Home

The 1816 Federal-style brick townhouse in Columbia where James Knox Polk lived as a young lawyer, now a state-run house museum. Apart from the White House, it is the 11th president's only surviving home.

Samuel Polk, the president's father, built it on what was then Market Street. James moved in around 1818, joined the bar in 1820, and stayed until his 1824 marriage to Sarah Childress.

The house left the family and changed hands repeatedly before the state bought it in 1929 and opened it to visitors in 1930. The detached kitchen was rebuilt on its original foundation in 1937.

Named a National Historic Landmark on July 4, 1961, and listed on the National Register in 1966. The Sisters' House next door, built in 1818 for brother-in-law James Walker, joined the site in 1941.

The federal file on the house begins with the Historic Sites Survey form Frank Sarles completed in November 1960 and Polly Rettig revised in 1976. The criterion is the person, not the architecture.

The nonprofit Polk Memorial Association runs the museum year-round for paid admission. Among 1,300 Polk pieces is a daguerreotype of his cabinet, described as the earliest known photograph of the White House interior.