Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens
Encyclopedia
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
marks the location of the house at 3202 Woolworth Avenue where U.S. President Gerald R. Ford lived for a couple of weeks after his birth in July 1913. It was the home of his paternal grandparents, Charles Henry
Charles Henry King
Charles Henry King was an Omaha businessman and banker who was instrumental in founding several cities in the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. He saw opportunity with the expansion of the railroad west and built up related retail businesses, banks and freight operations. His fortune was estimated...
and Martha King.
History
The King house at 3202 Woolworth Avenue was located on the border of the Hanscom ParkHanscom Park
Hanscom Park is a historic neighborhood in Midtown Omaha, Nebraska. Its namesake public park is one of the oldest parks in Omaha, donated to the City in 1872. U.S. President Gerald R. Ford was born in a house in the Hanscom Park neighborhood...
and Field Club neighborhoods of Midtown
Midtown
-In cities:Nepal*Midtown, Kathmandu, NepalUnited States*Midtown, Agoura Hills, California*Midtown Atlanta, Georgia**Midtown , passenger rail station near this area*Midtown Columbus, Georgia*Midtown, Detroit, Michigan...
Omaha. A three-story, fourteen-room Victorian mansion, it was razed after a 1971 fire caused substantial damage.
Omaha businessman James M. Paxson
James M. Paxson
James M. Paxson is an Omaha, Nebraska businessman who donated the land and raised funds to create the Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens at the 1913 birth site of President Gerald Ford....
, who lived in the neighborhood, purchased the vacant lot for $17,250 after Ford became president in 1974, and planned for it to be used as a memorial. Although Paxson donated the site to the city, officials said they couldn't afford to build a memorial. Paxson then set up the Paxson Foundation to fund the memorial and associated gardens. The site includes a portico evoking the north side of the White House and a pagoda resembling a portion of the original home.
Memorial and Ford Conservation Center
The memorial was dedicated in 1977. Ford partnered with Paxson on some fundraising. The former president returned in 1980 for the dedication of a rose garden in honor of Betty FordBetty Ford
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
.
Adjoining the site is the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center, a regional center of the Nebraska State Historical Society
Nebraska State Historical Society
The Nebraska State Historical Society is a Nebraska state agency, founded in 1878 to "encourage historical research and inquiry, spread historical information .....
founded in 1995. It provides conservation services for historical relics. The Center also contains a small exhibit of Ford memorabilia.
The two sites are just to the northwest of Hanscom Park, one of Omaha's oldest public parks. The house site is four blocks west of the Gerald R. Ford Expressway
Interstate 480 (Iowa-Nebraska)
Interstate 480 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway, a mere long, that connects Interstate 80 in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, with Interstate 29 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The portion of I-480 in Nebraska has been named the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, named in honor of the former President, who was a...
.
Family
The house was owned by the future president's paternal grandparents, Charles Henry KingCharles Henry King
Charles Henry King was an Omaha businessman and banker who was instrumental in founding several cities in the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. He saw opportunity with the expansion of the railroad west and built up related retail businesses, banks and freight operations. His fortune was estimated...
, a prominent banker, and his wife, the former Martha Alicia Porter. After their son Leslie Lynch King
Leslie Lynch King, Sr.
Leslie Lynch King, Sr. was the biological father of U.S. President Gerald Ford. Because of his alcoholism and abusive behavior, his wife Dorothy Gardner left him sixteen days after the birth of their son...
married Dorothy Ayer Gardner on September 7, 1912, the young couple moved into the house with his parents, as was typical of the times. Their first son, named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. was born July 14, 1913.
Because she had found that King was abusive and had a drinking problem
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, Dorothy separated from him when Leslie, Jr. was only 16 days old. After staying briefly with a sister in Illinois, Dorothy took her son with her to her parents and moved in with them in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, where the future president grew up. By the end of 1913 Dorothy's divorce from Leslie King was final. In 1916, Dorothy married Gerald Rudolff Ford
Gerald Rudolff Ford
Gerald Rudolff Ford was a Grand Rapids businessman and Republican politician who was the stepfather of U.S...
. They renamed Leslie, Jr. after him, as Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr. The future president was never formally adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
, however, and he did not legally change his name until 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name (Rudolph).