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gerald r. ford was born leslie l. king Jr. on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska.1 The site was the ornate mansion of his paternal grandparents, Charles and Martha King, who moved there in 1905 from Casper, Wyoming, to advance Mr. King’s many business interests.2 With much of his multimillion dollar net worth derived from the wool trade, he found the stately home at 3202 Woolworth Avenue a perfect fit. The Kings purchased it for $18,000 from Emma Patterson Bates, who had it built in 1893 for more than the cost of nearly all new houses in Omaha that year.3 The three-story, fourteen-room home offered a commanding view of the premier park in Omaha, featured a ballroom on the third floor, and had a large reception hall on the first floor.4 Its frequent use for high-society events included daughter Savilla’s wedding, described as “one of the prettiest and most elaborate” in recent memory, and daughter Marietta’s cotillion attended by the children of prominent local residents, including the future father of White House social secretary Letitia Baldrige and U.S. commerce secretary Malcolm Baldrige.5
Later, while Marietta King was attending St. Mary’s School in Illinois, her brother Leslie came for a visit and met her friend Dorothy Gardner of Harvard, Illinois.6 The two quickly became engaged and married in September 1912. But on their honeymoon Leslie King repeatedly struck his new bride and called her “vile and insulting names.” The situation did not improve back in Omaha, as King even refused to allow his wife to visit her parents that Christmas. When Dorothy found herself pregnant, she gave the marriage another chance, but just days after the birth of Leslie King Jr., her husband’s verbal abuse continued even as she lay in bed with their newborn child. After Leslie threatened to shoot both his wife and mother-in-law, Dorothy escaped from the King mansion with her sixteen-day-old child and returned to Illinois.7 In December 1913, she was granted a divorce and sole custody of her son, who took the name of his stepfather, Gerald R. Ford, after her 1917 marriage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.8 Charles and Martha King left Omaha in the midst of their son’s widely publicized divorce and sold the house in 1916.9 Surviving a serious fire not long after, the structure remained a single family property until the 1940s, when it was subdivided into apartments.10
On March 19, 1971, fire struck the house again, caused by a short in a basement apartment electrical cord, resulting in one fatality.11 The damage
was beyond repair, and the structure was demolished two months later.12 While fire had eliminated a material connection between Gerald Ford and Omaha, Ford himself acknowledged it was the “bitterness” between his parents that caused the lack of any “real connections” to the city.13 However, after Ford became vice president, a positive relationship began to develop, starting with his February 1974 trip to the city. Responding to public complaints about the condition of the vice president’s birthplace, neighborhood students cleared the vacant lot of litter the day before his arrival.14 After inspecting the site, Ford quipped it looked “better than my yard at home” and detoured from his itinerary to personally thank the students at their school.15 He
Purchased by Charles and Martha King in 1905, the stately home at 3202 Woolworth Avenue was one of the grandest residences in Omaha, Nebraska, at the time. It was here that their grandson and future president was born to their son Leslie and his wife, Dorothy. Today the bust of President Gerald R. Ford welcomes visitors to the park and historic site erected where the house once stood.
right President Ford’s birthplace on Woolworth Avenue was demolished after it was gutted by an electrical fire, March 1971.
also took time to meet his Aunt Savilla and several other King relatives living in Omaha who until then had proudly followed his rise to prominence only from afar.16
When Ford became president in August 1974, the owner of the birthplace lot had a contract with an apartment developer, but community sentiment favored recognizing the historic nature of the site.17 A homemade cardboard sign was posted denoting the property as the president’s birthplace. Many people stopped by to take photographs, and some even took a scoop of dirt.18 Any plans for apartments were abandoned, and the lot owner suggested the city or state buy it to honor Ford. However, by that December the local newspaper reported that neither the city nor county had any plans to acquire the land for such a purpose and that the owner had again listed it for sale.19
Businessman Jim Paxson, who lived just blocks from the site, read the article and drove by the next day. He quickly concluded the property should be used to recognize the only president born in Nebraska and was fearful it might succumb to
commercial purposes.20 Paxson gave his legal counsel a blank check with instructions to negotiate the sale, and an agreement was signed that day for $17,250.21 In January 1975 a foundation funded by Paxson donated the property to the city of Omaha on the condition it be used as a park and historic site.22 While the city would be responsible for ongoing maintenance, the Paxson Foundation paid all design and construction costs and Paxson himself managed and was the driving force behind the site’s development.
Preparations to transform the property began immediately with a goal of finishing by the approaching Bicentennial. As only an outer stone wall and a few large trees remained from the time of Ford’s birth, the site was essentially a blank slate.23 The president wanted to avoid a “lavish or pretentious monument” and suggested a “modest marking at the site done in good taste would be most desirable,” when asked for his input by Paxson and U.S. Senator Roman Hruska. 24 To develop preliminary ideas, Paxson and Hruska sponsored a design competition among University
Ahead of a visit to Omaha by Vice President Gerald R. Ford in 1974 (left), schoolchildren (above left) work to clear trash accumulated on the vacant lot where the future president’s birthplace once stood. Once Ford became president, the site attracted visitors although it was marked by only a cardboard sign. The Paxson Foundation, created to preserve the site in Ford’s honor, soon cosponsored a contest for the design of a modest landmark with Sen. Roman Hruska. The contest was won by University of Nebraska architecture student Gary Dubas, whom Ford congratulated by letter in June 1975 (opposite top right). The final design (opposite top left) was opened to the public in 1976 (opposite bottom) and features a multilevel garden, turret-shaped visitor center, curved paths, and a colonnade modeled after the South Portico of the White House.
of Nebraska architecture students, with a $1,000 first prize that attracted ninety-six entries.25 The winning submission by Gary Dubas of Omaha was a multilevel garden that outlined the footprint of the birthplace house.26 While Paxson was pleased with this concept, he also wanted a monument that would represent Ford’s time in the White House and so he acquired an additional lot north of the former King property to have sufficient space.27 To bring these two ideas together and develop a comprehensive plan for the entire expanded site, a competition among seven professional architectural firms was held. The selected design by Schlott, Farrington and Associates was personally approved by the president before construction began.28
With design elements representing both the birth home and the White House, the site is unique among presidential birthplaces.29 It symbolizes Ford’s life journey that began in Omaha and through various circumstances elevated him to the presidency. A visit to the site begins exactly as it would have in 1913—entering the property through an opening in the outer stone wall and then up two flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a distinctive wraparound porch that along with the other contours of the house are now marked by a series of brick walls. Within these walls, one of the most prominent features of the Victorian-era home is
represented by a turret-shaped interpretive center featuring objects and information about Ford and the house. Upon exiting what would have been the rear of the house, the visitor follows curved paths that ascend gradually to a colonnade modeled after the South Portico of the White House.30 Within the colonnade are four marble tablets inscribed with the names of all U.S. presidents centered on a larger tablet featuring a bronze medallion of Ford and his declaration upon taking office that “our long national nightmare is over.”31
While Ford would not formally dedicate the site until September 1977, construction was nearly complete when he came to Omaha for a primary campaign stop in May 1976. He described visiting the birthplace as “a very moving experience” and was “deeply honored by the thoughtfulness of the people of Omaha in preserving this site.”32 Two months later and just days after the nation’s Bicentennial, the President Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens opened to the public.33
Despite the opening, Jim Paxson’s vision for the site was not yet realized and his dedication to the project continued. Invited to a White House State Dinner on July 27, 1976, Paxson spoke directly with First Lady Betty Ford about his requests for presidential items to display at the birthplace that until then had gone unanswered by White House staff. Shortly thereafter, Paxson received a personal letter from the president with the requested items.34 The day after Ford left office, the size of the birthplace park increased substantially as Paxson purchased the last of several adjacent lots that would be developed into another symbol of the White House.35
The Ford Rose Garden, in honor of Betty Ford, features numerous types of roses, walking paths, and bronze busts of President and Mrs. Ford, who both attended its dedication in July 1980. With the assembled crowd of two thousand singing “Happy Birthday to Jerry” almost sixty-seven years to the day he was born there, Ford declared, “It’s awfully nice to be home.”36 He returned to the site a final time in September 1995 to open the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center, which was constructed north of the birthplace park on additional land acquired and donated by Paxson to the Nebraska State Historical Society.37 This facility features an exhibit about Ford, although its primary purpose is to preserve documents, paintings, and other historic objects.
Through the efforts of Jim Paxson and others,
During a visit to dedicate the Gerald R. Ford Expressway on August 20, 1982, Ford also spoke at his birthplace. Sitting behind Ford to the very far right is Jim Paxson, who was responsible for putting the site together.
an important presidential site has been preserved as a modest and unique memorial to a man who, despite his own family’s nightmare there, came to take great pride in claiming Omaha as his birthplace. The site remains a popular public space and is an integral part of a now National Historic District of well-kept century plus old homes easily accessible from Interstate 80 via the Gerald R. Ford Expressway.
notes
1. Omaha-Douglas County Health Department, Certificate of Birth for Leslie King Jr., copy in Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center, Omaha, Neb.
2. “Social Chit-Chat,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 29, 1905, 6; Edward L. and Frederick H. Schapsmeier, “President Gerald R. Ford’s Roots in Omaha,” Nebraska History 68 (1987): 57.
3. The building permit in the amount of $10,000 was exceeded by only three other private residences in Omaha during 1893. “Facing the Park,” Omaha World-Herald, January 6, 1893, 6; “Building in an Off Year,” Omaha World-Herald, December 31, 1893, 11; Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 287:204, April 27, 1905.
4. “First Time Advertised: 3202 Woolworth,” Omaha World-Herald, March 12, 1939, 37.
5. “Society Gossip of a Day: Rich-King,” Omaha World-Herald, January 11, 1906, 2; “Hymeneal: Rich-King,” Omaha Daily Bee, January 11, 1906, 9; “Notes on Omaha Society: Mr. and Mrs. C. H. King Give Cotillion for Their Daughter,” Omaha Daily Bee, December 31, 1908, 5.
6. “The Society Bee-Hive,” Omaha Daily Bee, August 22, 1912, 5.
7. James Cannon, Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 1–5; King v. King, Douglas County, Nebraska, District Court Divorce Decree, doc. 126, no. 247, December 19, 1913; Secretary of State, Department of Vital Records, Lansing, Mich., at FamilySearch.org, “Michigan Marriages, 1868–1925,” image 329.
8. King v. King.
9. Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 389:416A, March 2, 1914; Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 387:620, April 20, 1916; Answer of Leslie L. King in King v. King, Douglas County, Nebraska, District Court, doc. 130, no. 319, June 29, 1914.
10. “Plumber’s Candle Starts Bad Blaze in Home of Dr. Wood,” Omaha World-Herald, December 22, 1916, 1; “3202 Woolworth Ave.,” Omaha World-Herald, May 20, 1945, 48.
11. Michael Kelly, “Woman Survived Fire; Meets Death in 2nd,” Omaha World-Herald, March 19, 1971, 1; “Fire Started Below Room of Victim, 55,” Omaha World-Herald, March 20, 1971, 13.
12. “Death Building Torn Down,” Omaha World-Herald, May 25, 1971, 5.
13. Quoted in Fred Mogul, “Ford Wasn’t Born into a Happy Home,” Omaha World-Herald, September 20, 1995, 8.
14. “Youngsters Clear Ford’s Birthplace,“ Omaha World-Herald, February 15, 1974, 6.
15. Quoted in Richard L. Madden, “Ford Opposes Election Financing Bill,” New York Times, February 16, 1974, 5; “Cleanup Effort Gets Very Special Visit,” Omaha World-Herald, February 16, 1974, 1.
16. “Relatives Meet Vice President,” Omaha World-Herald, February 16, 1974, 8; Dana C. Bradford III, telephone interview by author, October 7, 2020; William H. Sutton Jr., telephone interview by author, November 3, 2020.
17. Dana Parsons ,“Ford Site Owner ‘Sells Self Short,’” Omaha World-Herald, August 9, 1974, 7.
18. John Taylor, “Who Looks at a Vacant Lot?,” Omaha WorldHerald, August 10, 1974, 1.
19. Dennis P. Hogan III, e-mail correspondence with author, October 15, 2020; “Ford’s Birthsite Draws No Nibbles,” Omaha World-Herald, December 12, 1974, 21.
20. James M. Paxson, interview by Dennis Mihelich, July 22, 1985, Oral Interview Series, no. 14, Douglas County Historical Society, Omaha, Neb.
21. Hal Daub, telephone interview by author, October 15, 2020.
22. Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 1516:597, January 16, 1975.
23. Gerald R. Ford, recording at President Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens, Omaha, Neb.
24. James M. Paxson to Gerald R. Ford, January 27, 1975; Roman L. Hruska to Ford, February 6, 1975; Ford to Hruska, February 20, 1975, all in box 50, Philip Buchen files, folder President— Personal Home—Birthplace, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, Mich., available online at www.fordlibrarymuseum. gov.
25. W. Cecil Steward to Eugene L. Brailey, January 22, 1975, ibid.
26. “Student Designs Ford Birth Marker,” Lincoln Daily Nebraskan, April 11, 1975, 11; Gary Dubas, telephone interview by author, September 25, 2020.
27. Paxson requested and received architectural specifications of both the north and south porticos of the White House from the National Park Service so that the design firms would have precise measurements to work from. Paxson to Philip Buchen, May 1, 1975, June 13, 1975, Buchen files; Daub interview; Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 1524:422, July 3, 1975.
28. Richard K. Pohl, telephone interview by author, September 30, 2020; Kenneth J. Backman, telephone interview by author, October 5, 2020; Paxson to Buchen, July 16, 1975, August 25, 1975, and Buchen memo to file, September 4, 1975, Buchen files.
29. Schlott, Farrington and Associates, “Design Philosophy: Birthplace Memorial of President Gerald R. Ford,” 1975, Omaha, Neb.
30. With some changes, the basic concept of a garden that marked the footprint of the original home introduced by student designer Gary Dubas was retained in the final design by Schlott, Farrington and Associates. The professional firm added the interpretive center modeled after the house’s turret. Although the actual turret was on the east side of the house, the interpretive center was placed on the west side of the house footprint. A large flagpole was situated on the former location of the turret, maintaining the high point of the property near the corner of Woolworth Avenue and Thirty Second Street. Pohl interview; Backman interview.
31. Gerald R. Ford, “Remarks upon Taking the Oath of Office as President,” August 9, 1974, Ford Presidential Library, available online at www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov.
32. Gerald R. Ford, “Remarks of the President at the Bergan-Mercy Hospital,” May 7, 1976, White House press releases, box 25, ibid.
33. Fred Thomas, “Ford Birthsite Opens: Donor Remains a Spectator,” Omaha World-Herald, July 9, 1976, 4.
34. Paxson interview; Ford to Paxson, August 14, 1976, Buchen files.
35. Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 1532:646, November 1, 1975; Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 1533:747, November 21, 1975; Douglas County, Nebraska, Deed Book 1561:673–76, January 21, 1977.
36. Quoted in Roger Catlin, “Various Activities Make Fords’ Visit a Busy One,” Omaha World-Herald, July 13, 1980, 18; “Warm Birthday Greeting for the Fords,” Omaha World-Herald, July 13, 1980, 1.
37. At the dedication ceremony Ford said of Paxson, who had died earlier that year, “He epitomized the finest in character among all Americans.” Quoted in C. David Kotok, “Ford Hails James Paxson at Building Dedication,” Omaha World-Herald, September 22, 1995, 2.