From Wikipedia
"The Herbert Hoover National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park System in West Branch, Iowa, United States. The buildings and grounds are managed by the National Park Service to commemorate the life of Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States. The park was established in 1965, shortly after it was named a National Historic Landmark. It now encompasses 186.8 acres (75.6 ha).
Hoover spent the first eleven years of his life in West Branch. The son of a blacksmith who practiced close to the town, Hoover was born in a small cottage in 1874. The family later moved nearby to the "House of the Maples", a two-story house. Within the next few years, Hoover was orphaned and left West Branch to live with relatives in Oregon. Hoover would go on to become a successful mining engineer, humanitarian, and President of the United States.
The birthplace cottage fell into private hands and became a tourist destination following Hoover's nomination to the presidency in 1928. After the Hoover family acquired the cottage in the 1930s, they worked to develop a park aimed at recreating Hoover's formative childhood experience. Among the buildings that now stand in the park are a blacksmith shop similar to the one owned by his father, the first West Branch schoolhouse, and the Quaker meetinghouse where the Hoover family worshiped. In the 1960s, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum first opened to maintain Hoover's presidential papers and memorabilia. Herbert and his wife, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, are buried under a monument designed by William Wagner. After the death of Herbert Hoover, an 81-acre (33 ha) tallgrass prairie was developed.
Herbert Clark Hoover spent the first eleven years of his life in West Branch, Iowa, a small farming community with a population around 500. His birthplace cottage was built in the spring of 1871 at the corner of Penn and Downey Streets. The two-room cottage, built for recent settlers Jesse Clark Hoover and his wife Hulda, was only 14 by 20 feet (4.3 m × 6.1 m) and had two rooms. Jesse and Hulda were both Quakers. Jesse was a blacksmith, and opened a shop shortly after settling. The cottage was built on a stone foundation and built with board and batten timber. The timber was cut in a sawmill in Muscatine.
On August 10, 1874, Herbert (known in his childhood as "Bert" or "Bertie") was born as the second child to Jesse and Hulda. Jesse's blacksmith had grown to be very successful, and in 1878, Jesse Hoover sold the practice to open a farm implement store on the corner of Main and Downey Streets. In March 1879, the family moved to the House of the Maples, a two-story frame house. Hoover may have attended classes at an 1853 schoolhouse at the corner of Main and Downey Streets. He attended Quaker services at the nearby Friends Meetinghouse.
The prosperity of the Hoover family suddenly ended on December 13, 1880, when Jesse died of rheumatic fever. Hulda supported the family by sewing and taking in boarders. However, Hulda died of typhoid fever on February 24, 1884. Now an orphan, nine-year-old Herbert Hoover was sent to live with his uncle Allan Hoover on a nearby farm. Two years later, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon to live with another uncle.
Hoover career and presidency
Herbert Hoover became a prosperous mining engineer, becoming very wealthy after working in Australia and China. He married Lou Henry in 1899. During World War I, Hoover was moved by a food crisis in Europe. Hoover oversaw operations for the Commission for Relief in Belgium to feed the nation of Belgium throughout the war. After the United States entered the war, Hoover was appointed the head of the U.S. Food Administration. Hoover was lauded for his efforts in his homeland. He campaigned on behalf of Warren G. Harding in 1920, who rewarded Hoover by appointing him Secretary of Commerce in his cabinet.
In 1928, Hoover was considered the leading candidate for president by the Republican Party. He defeated Al Smith in a landslide. However, his term was marred by the economic downturn of the Great Depression. Despite efforts to right the economy, Hoover was himself defeated in a landslide in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War II, Hoover was again tasked with providing food to war-torn countries.
Gravesite
Herbert Hoover died from internal bleeding in 1964, enjoying the longest retirement of any President to that point. Hoover considered his years in West Branch to be his most formative, and requested that he and his wife (who had died twenty years earlier) be buried there. Allan Hoover selected the site, which was landscaped before Herbert Hoover's death. 100,000 people lined the funeral procession route between Cedar Rapids and West Branch. William Wagner designed the memorial in collaboration with surviving Hoover family members. Standing at the foot of the monument, one can see the birthplace cottage."
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