President Bill Clinton's Visit to

The Bacon Memorial District Library

August 27, 1996

During the presidential campaign of 1996, between Democrat incumbent President Bill Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole, President Clinton conducted an old fashion whistle stop tour through Ohio and Michigan on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. To support the reelection campaign of U.S. Congressman John Dingell, the Clinton-Gore campaign committee wanted one stop in Dingell's Downriver district. An article appeared on page one of the News Herald of August 21 stating that the President was coming to Michigan on August 27th and may stop in Wyandotte.

August 22, 1996, Thursday

Around 9:45 am Library Director Barbara Wallace got a call from Superintendent of Wyandotte Schools Dr. Patricia Cole. Roosevelt High School and the Bacon Library were two sites being considered for the location of President Clinton's speech on literacy and education.

Sometime after 10:30 a.m., Robyn Smith and Julie Renehan from the Clinton-Gore campaign committee came to the library. After a quick look around the library, they indicated that the site might be too small and left. About noon, Robyn and another campaign staff member, Bob Gaines, returned. The President would come to Bacon after all.

At about noon Robyn and another campaign staffer, Bob Gaines, came back to the library and said they were interested in using our site for the presidential visit. They asked about any literacy programs and were told that we have tutors using the house and a collection of easy reading-books for adults. They were also told about the ESL class and about the Summer reading programs. After some discussion, photos of the Bacon house were faxed to Washington, and the visit was confirmed.

Robyn suggested that a giant library card be made for the President to sign. About 4:00 p.m., two Secret Service agents arrived, including Greg Suhajda who was to be the agent-in-charge of the library site. Later that day at least two more Secret Service agents arrived, as did another campaign staffer Noa, and the Wyandotte Chief of Police, Bill Lillienthal. White House communications and radio began setting up also.

August 23, 1996, Friday

At 9:00 am about 40 people met at the library to plan the event. Present were personnel from the Wyandotte and State Police, Wayne County Sheriff, Secret Service, Wyandotte Fire Department, Clinton-Gore Campaign, and the White House Press Office. During the course of the day, people from White House communications arrived and began running cable and installing electronic equipment. Two antennas were installed on the roof of the newer library building so that the Secret Service could communicate between the train station and the library. The flagpole including the cubic yard of concrete anchoring it below the ground was moved. The campaign staff wanted to move the tall book stacks to make a pressroom out of the newer library. This idea was not approved because it was impractical and too disruptive to library operations. The old "Bacon Memorial Public Library" sign over the Biddle Avenue entrance was removed, and Dave Wright of Wright Signs painted a replacement sign.

The campaign team worked late into the night taking measurements of Biddle Avenue and the front lawn of the Ford-Bacon Home.

August 24, 1996, Saturday 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

About 8:00 a.m., a convoy of ten Ameritech trucks arrived to install 200 phone lines for the press and the White House. Ameritech constructed a large outdoor "backing-board" on the south side of the library and mounted three switching boxes to it. Two CNN staffers arrived at 8:30 a.m., although most of their equipment did not arrive until Monday. City workers filled pot holes on Vinewood. Gabriel R. Palazzi, agent in charge of physical security and countermeasures, arrived to help with preparations.

Warren Lustig, the school district's electrician, arrived to discuss extra electricity needed and volunteers supplied by the carpenter's union began constructing a platform on the library's front lawn facing Biddle Avenue. Library personnel submitted their names, social security numbers and dates of birth for a security check.

August 25, 1996, Sunday 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Sunday was a busy day at the library with library staff members on hand to answer phones. The carpenters and community volunteers continued work on building the stage on the Biddle Avenue front lawn, while Ameritech installed cables. The lawn care service trimmed the lawns and removed a shrub on the Vinewood side of the building, which the Secret Service considered to be an obstacle to their plans. The Secret Service ran identity checks on volunteers working the area. The Heritage Sunday newspaper featured a long article on the President's upcoming visit to the library.

August 26, 1996, Monday

Beginning at 8:00 a.m., Wyandotte cable connected six rooms of the library with cable, including the Local History room where the White House staff would gather to watch the televised proceedings. CNN equipment arrived and was set up in the multi-purpose room. All the networks used the CNN transmission pool and their two satellite dishes on trucks in the parking lot. A reporter from Detroit's TV Channel 7 interviewed library director Barbara Wallace. The fire marshall arrived to inspect the house. Bunting was borrowed from the city of Taylor and from the Wyandotte Museum. School District electricians Warren and Bill added many new lines and dozens of electric cables for additional power. The Roosevelt High School football team and other volunteers arrived after the library closed at 6:00 p.m. and repositioned heavier objects in the reading room and youth areas to make way for the press corps.

Pipe and draperies divided the library into sections for the journalist, the White House Press, and the President's Press Secretary. A semi-circular stack of electronic and communications equipment was set up next to the reference desk. White House Communications added equipment that would enable them to broadcast live should the President need to address the nation for any unforeseen reason. The Secret Service covered most of the first floor windows of the house with brown paper, so no one could see into the library. From 8:00 a.m. to midnight nearly 100 people worked in and around the library.

August 27th, 1996, Tuesday

Library staff members began arriving at 6:00 a.m., 35 Secret Service agents met in a second floor front room to plan the day. Entrance gates equipped with metal detectors were set up across the width of Biddle Avenue at Superior to force spectators to pass through this checkpoint. Two army bomb squads with six members each and a dog began to sweep the library buildings for explosives shortly after 8:00 a.m. Team members donned coveralls and entered the crawl space under the house porch. All areas in both buildings were closely inspected. Doorways to rooms that were not to be occupied, such as the basement and attic, were sealed with tape after inspection. The bomb squad also checked the flower shop at Vinewood and Biddle and the Wyandotte Museum. Agents were on top of the ten-story Bishop Co-op Apartment Building, and in the crowd. The residents of Bishop Co-op were told to close their drapes and not look out their windows.

The library staff members were issued credentials that allowed them to pass through police lines and Secret Service checkpoints. Some staff prepared the front grounds, hung signs, worked the press room in the library annex, answered the phones at the circulation desk, or directed people in the house, or outside, in the VIP seating section.

At least an hour before the President arrived, three heavily equipped firefightersar and five sharp shooters, referred to as "counter-snipers," arrived and went to the second floor. Two or three of the latter took up posts on the roof of the library annex. A team of agents was stationed on the second floor of the Wyandotte Museum, directly across Biddle Avenue.

The total security detail on library grounds consisted of at least 40 plain-clothes Secret Service officers, eight uniformed Secret Service officers, and five sharp shooters. Several of the 53 Wyandotte City Police officers assigned to the event were on library grounds also. About 67 officers were borrowed from near-by communities for crowd and traffic control, and the State Police were also on hand.

A blue colored tent was erected on Vinewood to shelter the President's limousine, and a "tunnel" made of blue canvas was constructed. It lead from the tent to the side entrance of the house where the President would enter. In case of emergency, the public bathroom in the library annex would be used to secure the President, since it was an interior room without windows.

A large riser was built on Biddle Avenue for the Press and camera crews. Wyandotte Cable TV and Channel 7 Detroit televised the event locally. The volunteers staffing the cable facility were not permitted to leave their Winnebago during the event. CNN cut into their programming to telecast from Wyandotte live nation-wide.

At 9:00 a.m., the area was cleared of spectators who had arrived before the security gates were operational. About 10:00, a few thousand people, who had been waiting in several lines stretching from Superior back to Oak Street and further south, began to file through the five gates. Each gate included a walk-through metal detector. Cameras, purses, backpacks, and baby strollers were carefully inspected.

Dignitaries and some general ticket holders quickly filled the few chairs near the stage. Most spectators stood in the hot, muggy sunlight. Several people were treated for heat exhaustion. The crowd size would be estimated at 15,000. Recorded music boomed from loud speakers, beginning with the song Celebration. When the Macarena was played, the crowd began to dance.

The program officially began about noon. The McKinley School children entered the stage and sat on bleacher seats. State representative Joe Palamara acted as master of ceremonies. He mentioned the names of people connected with the event, including names of the Library Board members and the librarians. He then introduced Library Board President, Betty Murray. Betty welcomed everyone, and spoke of resources available at the library. When she held up a giant library card saying that the President would sign it, the crowd roared with approval.

Crowds of people gathered at the railroad station on Oak Street near 7th Street and along the tracks for some distance in anticipation of the President's arrival. As his train crossed Pennsylvania Road, about a mile and a half south of the station, President Clinton was standing on the rear platform of the last car waving to the spectators lining the route.

Once the President's train arrived, a motorcade consisting of three State Police cars, motorcycles, two limousines, a Secret Service utility vehicle, an ambulance, and busses for the press drove seven blocks along Oak Street to the Detroit River. Shadowed by a helicopter, the motorcade turned left on to Van Alstyne and traveled three short blocks to Vinewood. The lead vehicles turned left again onto Vinewood. The President's limousine pulled into the tent. The helicopter circled the library grounds before moving off a short distance.

The President was greeted by Clinton-Gore staff member Bob Gaines, and then entered the Bacon House using the canvas tunnel that connected the tent with the side entrance. Library Director Barbara Wallace, Patricia Cole and her daughter Kelly Cole greeted the President. The President spent a short time relaxing in the Friends Reading Room. Two black telephones were set up in the room for his use. Although there was trouble in Iraq, the President seemed relaxed and collected. For a time he sat at the writing desk signing copies of his recently published book titled Between Hope and History for the library staff, and six copies of The Little Engine That Could for the elementary schools. He was presented with gifts from the schools, and a wooden replica of the Bacon House from the library.

Outside, on stage, the McKinley School children sang This Land is Your Land and It's A Grand Old Flag. The Roosevelt High School marching band played the national anthem. Senator Carl Levin, Representative John Dingell and Superintendent Patricia Cole took their places on stage.

The President left the reading room and walked down the main hall to the front of the house. A recording played an official version of Hail to the Chief, as Clinton appeared on the stage with the McKinley School children all around him. After greeting the children and others, the President took a seat to the left. U.S. Senator Carl Levin and U.S. Congressman Dingell both gave speeches. Following the speeches elementary school children, Elizabeth Schweyen and Justin Whitney read to the President from The Little Engine that Could. At the end of the reading, the children introduced the President in unison saying, "...and now the President of the United States." The President laughed and then began his speech. Included in his opening remarks he said, "...I want to thank the people here at Bacon Memorial Library. It is a beautiful, beautiful building, and they gave me a few moments there to collect my thoughts. And I thank them for the work they do in this community." He then spoke for about 22 minutes on literacy and education, unveiling a two and one half billion dollar literacy program; Americorps would sponsor thousands of tutors so every child can learn to read by the third grade.

After the speech, the President descended the stage using the left stairs. Library Board President Betty Murray presented a poster size Bacon Library card, which he signed. The President then removed his suit coat and waded into the front ranks of the crowd and shook hands. with dozens of spectators.

Returning to the house, he spent over an hour meeting with dignitaries who were assembled in the Quiet Study Room, including civil rights icon Rosa Parks, Senator Levin, Congressman John Dingell, former governor James Blanchard, former Senator Don Riegle, Congressman John Conyers, Sander Levin, Chris Dingell, Joseph Palamara, Carpenters Union officials and others.

Members of the press entered the Library annex, used their notebook computers to write their reports, then phoned or faxed them to their editors. Many of the journalists went to Bishop Park to videotape their reports for the evening news using the Detroit River as a backdrop. Reporters at the Library included some of the best-known names in TV journalism, including Brit Hume, Helen Thomas, Ann Compton, Paula Zahn, Alison Mitchell of the New York Times, Anne Thompson and others. Over a hundred members of the press enjoyed the food buffet set up on the circulation counter catered by Truly Gourmet of Grosse Ile.

Just before the President departed, Bob Gaines led the Library Staff, along with Board members Betty Murray and Carolyn Harris, into the house from the press area and lined them up in the main hallway. The President came out of the VIP meeting room and shook hands with each of them. He joked with Barbara Wallace that he would like to buy some of the books from the used book sale on display in the Friends Reading Room. He read Betty Murray's speech, and said he wished he could have heard it. After signing a copy of her speech, he departed by turning down the side hallway and walking through the tunnel to the limousine for the ride back to the train. The President was on the library grounds from about 1:00 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.

The President's motorcade returned to the train station. Standing on the rear platform of the last car, he waved to the people as the train pulled out and waved for several blocks up the line. People lined the tracks for much of the way. The train headed for the next stop in Royal Oak.

It took a day and a half to put the Library back in order, but the stage was dismantled in less than two hours. The Junior Varsity football team arrived to re-assemble the main Library reading room. City, school, Ameritech workers and volunteers helped with the clean up.

Although the President also visited Royal Oak, Pontiac, and East Lansing that same day, Wyandotte was the major event on the schedule. The only substantive speech of the day was delivered here before the largest crowd. The Press Corps assembled at Bacon Library. Many of the reporters didn't follow the President to the next whistle stops.

Two of the agents who arrived with the President went on to become directors of the Secret Service. They were Lewis Merletti and Brian Stafford, who sat behind him on the stage.

Staff of the Bacon Library who were present for the President's visit were Barbara Wallace, Janet Cashin, Jeanne Gibbs, Wallace Hayden, Jayne Johnson, Darlene Kilgore, Beth Kowaleski, John McDowell, Anita O'Brien, Jan Wilson, Barb Wingate, and pages Bill Morris, and David Furchak.

This was an historic occasion not only for the Library Staff, but also for the City of Wyandotte. Each of the six days brought less time for normal library operations and more time devoted to preparing for the visit. The campaign staff, the Secret Service, and the press all worked well with the Library Staff. Bacon personnel presented agent-in-charge Greg with a book on the Secret Service that had been of interest to him. The staff also gave one of the President's autographed books to Robyn Smith. Several of the agents left USSS star pins with Library Staff members as a "thank you" for the work of the last six days. The Library Board granted all employees a half day off to recuperate.

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This Community information project was funded in part with a Federal Library Services and Construction Act grant administered by the Library of Michigan.
12/19/06