Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens

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The Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska marks the location of the house where U.S. President Gerald R. Ford was born in 1913.

The house at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in "near west" Omaha was a three-story, fourteen-room Victorian house. It was razed after a 1971 fire killed an occupant. Omaha businessman James M. Paxson, who lived in the neighborhood, purchased the vacant lot for $17,250 after Ford became President in 1974, intending it to become a memorial. He gave it to the city but the city citing costs said it could not build the memorial. Paxson then set up the Paxson Foundation to fund the memorial that includes a portico evoking of the north side of the White House and a pagoda that resembles a portion of the original home. ^[1]

Ford, as President, visited the site on May 7, 1976 while campaigning for the Republican nomination in the Nebraska primary. Ford lost the primary to Ronald Reagan and said later that the loss of his home state hurt him. Ford won the state in the general election.

The memorial was dedicated in 1977. Ford and Paxson were to fund raise together and Ford returned in 1980 for the dedication of a rose garden in honor of Betty Ford. ^[2]

Adjoining the site is the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center (also established by Paxson) which is maintained by the Nebraska State Historical Society which provides conservation services for historical relics. The Center also contains an exhibit of Ford memorabilia.

The two sites are just to the northwest of Hanscom Park, which is one of the oldest public parks in Omaha.

The house was owned by the future president's paternal grandparents, Charles Henry King, a prominent banker, and his wife, the former Martha Alicia Porter. One of their five children, Leslie Lynch King, married Dorothy Ayer Gardner on September 7, 1912 and moved into the house with the elder Kings. Ford was born on July 14, 1913 at 12:43 AM CST as Leslie Lynch King, Jr.

According to Associated Press reports, Leslie King, Sr. was abusive and had a drinking problem. Ford later described his father as having frequently hit his mother.^[3] James M. Cannon, the executive director of the domestic council during the Ford administration, has written that the future president's father threatened Dorothy King with a butcher knife a few days after their son's birth and announced his intention to kill her, their son, and the baby's nursemaid.^[4]

Sixteen days after the birth, Ford's parents separated, and his mother took him to the Oak Park, Illinois home of her sister Tannisse and her husband, Clarence Haskins James. From there she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and his wife, the former Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids.^[5]

On December 19, 1913, an Omaha court granted the divorce of Ford's parents. His mother then married Grand Rapids paint salesman Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1916. They were to call her eldest son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. although he was not formally adopted and did not legally change his name until 1935.^[6] He later used a more conventional spelling of his middle name.

The site is four blocks west of the Gerald R. Ford Expressway.