Interviews with residents of Hillary Clinton’s adopted home town suggest that while she will garner most votes here on 19 April, and the email scandal is a non-issue, her husband remains a star whose light is difficult to eclipse

An unmistakeable tall, lean 69-year-old man on Wednesday made his way past Coloring Books for Grown-Ups to the check-out at Scattered Books. Bill Clinton bought journalist Anderson Cooper’s memoir The Rainbow Comes and Goes for himself and a thriller, Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben, for a friend. But he couldn’t leave it at that.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god! Bill Clinton just came in and said: ‘I love this store’,’” says Laura Scott Schaefer, a children’s author who opened the independent bookshop six months ago. “I’m going to faint!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Laura Scott Schaefer, owner of Scattered Books. Photograph: Lauren Caulk/The Guardian

The story is a typical one in Chappaqua, the woodsy hamlet north of New York City that became Bill and Hillary Clinton’s adopted home in 1999 and where the private email server she used as secretary of state is under investigation by the FBI. It is here that the Clintons will cast their vote in an increasingly fraught Democratic primary election that finds New York, regarded by many as the greatest city in the world, in a new role at the centre of the political universe.

Hillary’s dogged Democratic rival Bernie Sanders grew up in Brooklyn and her likely general election opponent, Donald Trump, made billions in Manhattan. Chicago-born Hillary served two terms as New York senator and is said to be a model neighbor in quietly prosperous Chappaqua. But interviews with local residents suggest that while she will garner most votes here on 19 April, and the emails are dismissed as a non-issue, her husband remains a star whose light is difficult to eclipse.

Hillary is often seen out shopping, always unfailingly polite and accommodating to photograph seekers

Bill has been campaigning hard for his wife and was back in the spotlight this week when he clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters in Philadelphia over his 1994 crime bill. In largely white Chappaqua, many tell anecdotes of him walking into Starbucks (decaffeinated coffee or, on hot afternoons, decaffeinated tea) and holding court for an hour or more on the politics of the day or reliving issues of presidency, almost as if he never left the White House. One florist recalled how, a day after the terrorist attacks in Paris, Bill stopped by and talked about how he had been tracking Osama Bin Laden before 9/11.

Hillary is often seen out shopping too, never displaying airs and graces, always unfailingly polite and accommodating to photograph seekers. Her hairdresser of choice, Santa Nikkels, turned up in her publicly released emails. But last month she admitted: “I am not a natural politician, in case you haven’t noticed, like my husband or President Obama.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hillary Clinton in front of the Chappaqua house in November 1999, shortly after the Clintons bought the home. Photograph: Stephen Chernin/AP

Stan Amberg, 81, a retired lawyer, recalled sitting with his coffee and newspaper at Lange’s Little Store, a homely deli where the Clintons often take breakfast away in brown paper bags. “He came over and said: ‘My name’s Bill, mind if have coffee with you?’ He’s very approachable and he loves kids. He gets down on his knees and talks eye to eye with them. She can’t do that; she has this issue with engaging. I don’t know if it’s an inherent problem with her personality.”

Once, at a local school, he said, the Clintons were faced with a huge queue of school children waiting for the president’s autograph. “She was nudging him: ‘Bill, we’ve got to go.’ He wouldn’t budge until he signed every last autograph. You get the difference.”

On another occasion, Bill, a vegan, was dining with friends at another favorite, the French bistro Le Jardin Du Roi. Amberg said: “A lady leans over and says, ‘Mr President, how come you weren’t able to work things out with Yasser Arafat at Camp David?’ The waiters stopped. The restaurant ceased to move. He turned his head and said: ‘I thought Arafat was having a nervous breakdown. He couldn’t concentrate. He wouldn’t give a straight answer.’ I thought wow, he had no qualms talking about it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Downtown Chappaqua, a woodsy hamlet north of New York City. Photograph: Lauren Caulk/The Guardian

Founded by Quakers in the 1730s, Chappaqua – derived from the Native Indian name Shepequa, meaning “a place where nothing is heard but the rustling of wind in the leaves” – sits in the wooded suburbs of Westchester County. It was previously home to Horace Greeley, the founder and first editor of the once mighty New York Herald Tribune and a losing presidential candidate.

She has this issue with engaging. I don’t know if it’s an inherent problem with her personality Stan Amberg, retired lawyer

Chappaqua is unquestionably well off by American or world standards, and will do little to dispel critics’ portrayal of Hillary as an establishment figure. But the wealth does not ooze from every pore and is more understated than in Greenwich, just 13 miles from here in Connecticut, home to hedge-fund executives, Wall Street bankers and the Bush political dynasty.

Grace Bennett, publisher of Inside Chappaqua magazine, who has interviewed Hillary and travelled with her on an official trip to Africa, said: “It’s a caring town. Yes, there’s affluence here but you don’t have a lot of the ladies who lunch and play tennis. There’s a lot of intelligence running through it. It’s an extension of the city: a lot of people moved here from there.”

In an open letter to the Clintons published by the New York Times in 1999, Timothy Jack Ward wrote: “The friendliness here has an edge to it. Ours are reinvented personalities, hardened by jobs in Manhattan. However bucolic our little hamlet might appear, many people drive their lives the way they do their jumbo-size expeditions, with a peculiar aggression, a hyper-busyness, that takes some getting used to.”

The Clintons’ 11-room Dutch colonial home, which cost them $1.7m, was built in 1905-06 by architect Alfred Busselle for his own use. Gray Williams, 83, who is Hillary’s go-to guy for local historical information, said it had particular appeal because it came with a separate barn that could accommodate the secret service. “It isn’t very fancy,” he noted. “It isn’t a McMansion.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lange’s Little Store, a regular Clinton haunt for breakfast. Photograph: Lauren Caulk/The Guardian

The house also contrasts sharply with Trump’s extravagant gilded age residence, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. Set at the end of a cul-de-sac, a gambrel roof, old stone chimney and tall trees peep above a high white fence and guard house. Outside sits a “Hillary” placard: still the only political poster visible in the whole of Chappaqua, although it it not thought to have been planted by the candidate herself.

The gregarious Clintons and their daughter Chelsea have been embraced by Chappaqua and it is hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about them, still less any whiff of scandal around the former president who threatened his legacy by having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Schaefer, 44, of Scattered Books, which sells both Bill’s and Hillary’s memoirs as well as the parody Trump Coloring Book, said: “Other customers are respectful. There’s the usual moment of silence and then everybody goes back to their business. The Clintons agree to a photo and then go back to their shopping. I’ve never met smarter people in my life. I wouldn’t want to go up against them at Jeopardy.”

Politics is taken very seriously here, she argued, and that will benefit Hillary rather than the superficial bluster of Trump, who owns a golf club in nearby Briarcliff Manor.

Few here believe that the name of Chappaqua will become infamous as the location of Hillary’s private email server, which she admits was a mistake but denies was a serious breach of national security. Schaefer added: “It’s pretty much dismissed as a distraction. People care about real things, and there are more serious things going on than someone’s email chain.”

This is Democratic establishment territory where Hillary can expect to do well at the ballot box. Roger Fox, Westchester County volunteer field director for the Sanders campaign, acknowledged that median incomes stand at $105,000 and many people work in the financial sector, but said a hundred Sanders supporters plan to knock on doors on 16 April.

“My sense is she’s going to have to defend her home town, her county, her state or she might lose,” he said. “Westchester County is a bellwether: as Westchester goes, so does New York state. I feel like it’s tightening. If we get down to single digits [in the polls], our superior ground game could deliver.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Town sign in Chappaqua. Photograph: Lauren Caulk/The Guardian

“Can we carry Chappaqua? That is a tough nut to crack. On 16 April we’re going to invade Chappaqua. Maybe that’s our Normandy.”

But the only Sanders supporter the Guardian could find this week was a visitor from Brooklyn. Long-time residents were loyal to the former secretary of state. Bob Coulombe, a veteran of the New York Air Guard, said: “She is the best qualified. She has exceptional experience in so many ways. She is also an extremely bright woman. Breaking the glass ceiling at this point in our history is important and who better to do that?

“Bernie Sanders came out of the woodwork and hit a note and it’s one note. That’s his tune and it’s healthy that he’s making Hillary work for it, but we are electing an incredibly important person. Personally I think his positions on a lot of things are not realistic.”

. . .

In 2014, when a bridge was renamed in honour of a local dry cleaner’s son, a soldier killed in Afghanistan, Hillary was present at the ceremony. Coulombe, 72, said he has been grand martial at the annual memorial day parade and Hillary marks her calendar specially to make sure she does not miss it. He told how the Clintons also support the local ambulance corps, “doing things that are not political, are neighbourly”. On one occasion, he said, some volunteers from Bill’s native Arkansas were in town and the former president said over the phone: “Do they like beer? Bring them over.”

Yet is seems while Hillary is well-liked, her husband is loved. Bill took long walks here after his quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2005 and often stopped to chat. In Family Britches, an upmarket tailor, the old charmer’s most recent purchase was a $150 green sweater for the wintry campaign trail in Iowa, according to co-owner Barry Mishkin. “He talked to people here for an hour and a half about the issues of the day,” the 69-year-old said. “It was fascinating. He’s a consummate gentleman.”

Yet is seems while Hillary is well-liked, her husband is loved

Bill’s ongoing fascination with politics raises questions over how he will handle the role of first husband and whether he could resist voicing opinions at every turn. Yet some believe Hillary’s social skills are underrated, especially her sense of humour. Lore has it that soon after moving to Chappaqua, she found herself being stared at in a market and finally turned around and said: “Well, I have to eat too!”

Eileen Josefs, 50, manager of Petticoat Lane, a boutique department store where the Clintons buy gifts for their granddaughter, said when Clinton was weighing up a run for the White House, she said of the store’s owner: “Do I play tennis with Phyllis or do I run for president?”

And Bennett of Inside Chappaqua, showing iPhone footage of Hillary dancing with South African politicians, concurred: “The one thing I got from my trip to Africa is she has a great sense of humour. I can imagine getting a few lady friends together and smuggling her out to a nightclub.”

Contemplating that scene, she mused: “Sometimes I feel sorry for her. She’s such a regular person. I wish she could let her hair down and be a regular person. I think she enjoys those girlfriend moments.”