Article

The Cultural Landscape of Herbert Hoover's Hometown

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

Trees in brilliant autumn foliage frame an old white schoolhouse.
Places To Go

A landscape of historic buildings, exhibits, and natural areas commemorate the life of Herbert Hoover.

The park's historic structures, like the Birthplace Cottage, the Blacksmith Shop, the Schoolhouse, and the Friends Meetinghouse, symbolize American ideals as Herbert Hoover saw them and lived them. As additions to the historic landscape of Herbert's early years, the Gravesite, the Statue of Isis, and the Presidential Library and Museum connect his childhood to his later accomplishments.

A Place of National Significance

On August 12, 1965, an act of Congress established this park as a national historic site. Since then, the National Park Service has preserved and interpreted the historic structures and landscape of this 187-acre park. In the late 1930's, President Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, chose this place to celebrate the values they believed helped shape his life.

Presidential Birthplace, Home, & Memorial

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site includes many features of Hoover's boyhood environment that have endured over time and give the park its unique identity as a Presidential birthplace, boyhood home, and memorial. Although much has changed here since Herbert Hoover's birth in 1874, the National Park Service, citizens of West Branch, and the Hoover family have worked to preserve key elements of the past that illuminate the life and times of America's 31st president.

Inspiring a Life of Service

Herbert Hoover's accomplished and public-spirited life drew inspiration from his birthplace. During your visit immerse yourself in the landscape Hoover and the activities he experienced as a child. His father's craft as a blacksmith, Hoover's religious upbringing, his love of fishing, the education he received-influences Herbert Hoover carried into his adult life and that contributed to his character. You'll also read and hear eloquent accounts of the adversity that touched a Quaker family and shaped the path of a young boy from West Branch who went on to serve his country as President. We hope you will find Herbert Hoover National Historic Site to be an inspiring, accessible educational, and recreational experience for years to come.

Cultural Landscape of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
Photo Gallery

Cultural Landscape of Herbert ...

9 Images

Landscape and buildings at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa.

Stories

Showing results 1-8 of 8

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Restoration of the Birthplace Cottage

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    Workers pose by a small house under restoration in a 1930s photo.

    In the years following his presidency, Herbert and Lou Hoover restored the president's humble birthplace, which he called, "physical proof of the unbounded opportunity of American life." The small space and few material possessions reflect the Hoovers' ethic of thrift, while the antique furnishings represent common household items of a simply furnished two room rural home.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Historical Studies, Reports, & Plans

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A 1970s photo shows park visitors following a female ranger in a tan uniform.

    The National Park Service publishes studies, reports, and plans for parks' historic structures, furnishings, and landscapes.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    West Branch Grows, 1851-1874

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A picket fence encloses a white two-story house with a porch.

    You might be surprised to learn that Herbert Hoover didn’t live in one of the larger, fancier-looking homes at the historic site, even though they were built during the same time period. By comparison, his single story birthplace cottage measured only 14 feet by 20 feet in size. Although you can go inside the house where America’s 31st President was born, the homes on Downey and Poplar streets are not open to the public and are used as offices or residences.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    West Branch's Quaker Heritage

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    Squares of light fall from a window onto wooden pews.

    The restored Friends Meetinghouse, where young Herbert Hoover and his family worshipped, represents the values of the community that shaped Hoover’s early years in West Branch.

    • Type: Series
    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A large black and yellow moth hovers at a pale purple flower.

    Poets, playwrights, fiction writers, and essayists participate in the Artist-in-Residence Program at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    The Arts At Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A portrait painting shows a middle aged man in a suit sitting in a dark room.

    Ever since the installation of the Statue of Isis across from Herbert Hoover's restored birthplace in 1939, the historic site has been home to original artwork that commemorates the 31st President of the United States.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Blacksmithing At Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A man with tongs holds metal in a brick forge with bright orange flames.

    The blacksmith shop at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site is a working smithy. The blacksmiths are trained in the same style as Herbert’s father, Jesse Hoover. It is a style known as traditional blacksmithing, where the techniques, tools, and fuel sources are what have been used for centuries. The blacksmiths demonstrate the skill and hard work needed to turn ordinary iron into useful things.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Summer Yardscape

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A boy walks a park path toward a historic blacksmith shop painted brown.

    Writer M.S. Coe was artist-in-residence at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in 2011. During her residency she wrote the fiction story "Summer Yardscape".

Places

Showing results 1-7 of 7

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Birthplace Cottage

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A small white cottage is depicted in a painting amid summer foliage.

    In the years following his presidency, Herbert and Lou Hoover restored the president's humble birthplace, which he called, "physical proof of the unbounded opportunity of American life." The small space and few material possessions reflect an ethic of thrift. The cottage was a typical starter home for a young late 19th century family. Antique furnishings represent common household items of a simply furnished two room rural home.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Blacksmith Shop (Herbert Hoover National Historic Site)

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A low brown barn-like building with three large doorways has a large horseshoe on its facade.

    Jesse Hoover owned and operated a blacksmith shop from 1871 to 1878. Although there were other smithies in town, Jesse earned a reputation as a good-natured, fair, and industrious businessman. Skilled and ambitious, he advertised to farmers, “Horse shoeing and plow work a specialty. Also dealer in all kinds of pumps. Prices to suit the times.”

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Friends Meetinghouse

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    Two doorways, one on either side, of a broad white wood frame building divides the sexes.

    Herbert Hoover grew up in a religious community that valued peace, simplicity, integrity, and service to others. The plainly furnished Friends Meetinghouse, built by the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in 1857, is the physical expression of those values. Now two blocks from its original location, the Herbert Hoover Birthplace Foundation relocated and restored this meetinghouse in 1964.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Gravesite of President & Mrs. Hoover

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    Two marble ledger stones each mark a grave in a semicircular landscaped plot with a flagpole.

    When he died on October 20, 1964 at the age of 90, the 31st President was laid to rest five days later in this quiet, grassy hillside. More than 100,000 people lined the funeral procession route from Cedar Rapids to West Branch on that warm fall day.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    Flags fly in front of a public building of rough-faced yellowish stone and a white portico.

    Part of the National Archives, the presidential library allows people to explore the legacy of Herbert Hoover's presidency. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum opened to the public on August 10, 1962— Herbert Hoover's 88th birthday. The library's original entrance, which is the small portico at the east end of the building supported by four white pillars and topped with an earlier version of the presidential seal, is where the dedication took place.

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Schoolhouse

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A one-story wooden building painted off-white has two windows and a central doorway.

    Herbert Hoover recalled, "Iowa in those years was filled with days of school, and who does not remember with a glow, some gentle woman, who with infinite patience and kindness, drilled into us those foundations of all we know today."

  • Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

    Statue of Isis

    • Locations: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
    A bronze sculpture of a veiled Egyptian goddess.

    The bronze, seven and a half foot tall statue "Isis, Goddess of Life" is the work of Belgian sculptor Auguste Puttemans. It was a gift from the people of Belgium in gratitude for Hoover's famine relief efforts on their behalf during the First World War.

Tags: essentials

Last updated: April 15, 2021