For one afternoon in September, the public will get a rare look inside the building where President Rutherford B. Hayes once kept his horses and his official carriage. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums will open the Carriage House at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio for guided tours on September 10, 2026, running from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with reservations required and just 80 total visitors allowed through the doors.
As reported by Cleveland.com, the tours will run in eight separate 15-minute sessions, with only 10 participants per group. The building, which once housed Hayes' horses and carriage, now includes a renovated upstairs living space used for special events and visiting dignitaries, according to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums. The structure also holds grounds equipment, a screened porch overlooking the rose garden, and a greenhouse used to grow seedlings for the estate.
This isn't the Carriage House's public debut. The building was first opened for tours during Ohio Open Doors in September 2024, and reservations filled almost immediately, prompting organizers to bring the tour back for 2026, per the library and museums. That kind of demand explains why this year's slots are being so tightly rationed.
A Presidential Carriage With a Real Price Tag
The Carriage House earns its name honestly. Hayes purchased his official Brewster & Co. carriage on March 22, 1877 for $1,150, along with two pairs of black horses for $1,700 and harnesses costing another $300, according to the library and museums — a reminder that 19th-century presidents were expected to fund their own transportation. That carriage, per Cleveland.com, was later loaned by Hayes to his successor, James A. Garfield, and it remains on permanent display inside the museum today, alongside artifacts including Hayes' Civil War jacket, which bears a bullet hole in the left arm.
Cleveland.com also reports that Ulysses S. Grant sat on a chair during Hayes' inauguration, one of the many objects tied to the era on display in the museum, which explores Hayes' life and presidency. Visitors touring the grounds can also see the mahogany bed Hayes and his wife, Lucy Hayes, received as a wedding gift in 1852, and the granite tomb where the couple is buried at Spiegel Grove.
The Mansion Behind the Carriage House
The 25-acre Spiegel Grove estate that surrounds the Carriage House includes a 31-room Gothic Revival-style mansion that served as Hayes' home for the final 20 years of his life, where he lived with Lucy Hayes and their family. Construction on the original two-story brick residence began between 1859 and 1863 under Hayes' uncle, Sardis Birchard, who built the home as a summer residence to share with his nephew, according to the library and museums. The project took five years to complete because of Civil War-era labor and material shortages.
Hayes later expanded the mansion himself. In 1880, while preparing to leave the White House, he added a library to house his 12,000 books along with a four-story walnut and butternut staircase leading to a rooftop lantern offering 360-degree views of the estate, a renovation the library and museums say was modeled after Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The property's iron perimeter gates have their own backstory: they are original White House gates erected in Washington around 1870 and removed decades later due to growing automobile traffic, before Colonel Webb C. Hayes acquired them following Congressional authorization in 1928, according to the Toledo Blade.
Part of a Statewide Preservation Push
The Carriage House tour is one piece of Ohio Open Doors, a biennial program offering free special tours and programs statewide, which runs from September 10 to 20, 2026. Established by the Ohio History Connection in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, the program is aiming for more than 250 free events across all 88 Ohio counties this year in celebration of the U.S. Semiquincentennial, according to America250-Ohio.
The Hayes site itself carries a distinct claim to fame beyond the Carriage House. Founded by Hayes' son, Colonel Webb C. Hayes, and opened on May 30, 1916, the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums was established as the first presidential library in the United States. Spiegel Grove, where the library sits about 80 miles west of Cleveland per Cleveland.com, is also an accredited arboretum containing more than 1,800 trees.
Getting There and What Else to See
Beyond the one-day Carriage House event, visitors can explore the broader 25-acre Spiegel Grove estate and museum year-round. General admission runs $20, with discounts offered to seniors, military members, students and children, according to Cleveland.com. Hayes' international legacy adds an unexpected footnote to a visit: he is commemorated as a national hero in Paraguay, where an entire administrative department, Presidente Hayes, bears his name following his 1878 international arbitration award that settled a border dispute and granted the disputed Chaco region to Paraguay, as noted by Atlas Obscura.
For those hoping to see inside the Carriage House, reservations are required, and with only 80 spots available across the eight 15-minute tours, interested visitors are likely to want to book early. The tours are scheduled for a single day, September 10, making this a narrow window to see a part of the historic estate that's normally off-limits to the public.
