Richard Nixon Birth Home – California
In Yorba Linda, California, tucked within the grounds of the presidential library, stands a small modest farmhouse where Richard Milhous Nixon was born in 1913.

The house is a simple white clapboard with narrow rooms and modest furnishings. It reflects the Quaker values of his parents, Frank and Hannah Nixon: faith, discipline, humility and hard work. There is nothing grand about it. Just a family home built by his father on lemon ranch land in rural Southern California.
Nixon grew up in a household shaped by Quaker principles of honesty, self-reliance and a strong sense of moral responsibility. The family experienced financial hardship and personal tragedy, two of his brothers died young from illness. These early experiences deeply marked Nison’s character. From this small house, he went on to attend Whittier College, Duke Law School, serve in the Navy during World War II, enter Congress and ultimately become the 37th President of the United States.
Walking through this home is a reminder that presidents do not always emerge from privilege. Nixon’s beginnings were modest and his childhood was shaped by work in the family grocery store.
Just steps from his birthplace, Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat Nixon are buried on the ground of the Presidential Library. Their graves are simple and consistent with the tone of the property.

Read More From Nancy
Ghandi Smriti – Delhi, India
More than a decade ago, on my second trip to India, I visited one of the most memorable places I have ever stood: Gandhi Smriti, the site where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. What made this visit so moving were the footprints. Set into the stone pathway, I walked where Gandhi took his final steps on […]
Hammersmith – Rhode Island
In the 1990s, Hammersmith Farm in Newport opened for tours, and we made the trip to see it. The estate is best known as the childhood summer home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and as the site of the wedding reception following her marriage to John F. Kennedy in 1953. After the ceremony of St. Mary’s […]
Thomas Wolfe Home – Asheville, North Carolina
Wandering through the quiet rooms of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, North Carolina. Marty and I stepped back into an era when Asheville was not yet a bustling arts town, but rather a sanctuary for healing and a mountain refuge for those seeking relief from tuberculosis. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Asheville became known […]