Herbert Hoover’s Birthplace



 Headed to West Branch, Iowa to revisit the birthplace of our 31st president.  Phil and I were here back in 1995 when we participated in the Des Moines Register’s RAGBRAI race across Iowa. That year the route had us go right by this National Historic Site.  

This, like Lincoln’s Historical Site, has his library across the park. This library unlike Lincoln’s is operated by the US Archives and as was the case for Johnson’s and Clinton’s libraries, Archives has not reopened any of the presidential libraries. Hope they open by the time we get to New York so we can visit FDR’s.



Hoover, a Quaker, comes from humble beginnings. His parents both died before he was 12 and he was shipped to live with his aunt in Oregon. He attended Stanford University where he did well as a geology major. He rose to prominence as the Secretary of Commerce under Warren Harding. In that post he helped ship food to war torn Europe at the end of WWI. 

The Park Service, as like with Lincoln’s home, purchased surrounding land and created a two block area to show what this area would have looked like in the 1890s. His birth house and his Quaker meeting house, his school house and his father’s blacksmith shop have all been restored. The park surrounding the area provides great running trails in summer and cross-country skiing trails in winter. 







Unlike Lincoln’s tomb, Hoover’s and his wife Lou’s headstones are simple in design to pay homage to his Quaker roots. 





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