From the street it looks like any other old house. But it’s much more than that. It was home to the 31st president of the United States.
The boyhood home of Herbert Hoover is in Newberg, Oregon.
Hoover was from Iowa, originally. His parents died when he was young. That was in 1885.
11-year-old “Bert” as he was called, moved in with his uncle, Dr. John Minthorn, in Newberg and settled in with his new family and his new state.
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The Newberg home is now the Hoover Minthorn House Museum and it is open to the public.
Hoover’s upstairs bedroom is intact with his original bed and dresser.
You can see where the future president of the United States did his chores — milking cows, splitting wood and doing homework.
Several years after arriving in Newberg, Hoover moved with the Minthorn family to Salem. Then he went off to college and eventually, politics.
As president, Hoover is often blamed — rightly or wrongly — for Great Depression. Perhaps this is why the fact that he lived in Newberg is lesser known.
In 1955, 81-year old Hoover came back to Newberg to dedicate the house as a museum.
The Hoover-Minthorn House Museum has set hours of operation and they also do private tours. There is a small admission fee, but it is totally worth it to find out more about the childhood home of the 31st American President.
And it’s right in our back yard.
