Ronald Reagan’s QCA first home tells his story

The QCA has plenty of historic landmarks, including two presidential birth homes. Fortieth president Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911. That first home is now a museum, dedicated to teaching the public about Reagan.

“It was a very difficult birth” said Joan Johnson, a volunteer at the birthplace. “He weighed over ten pounds. And when his dad saw him, he said he makes a heck of a lot of noise for a fat, little Dutchman.”

The very first place Ronald Reagan called home was modest. An apartment a floor above the grocery store where his father worked. His parents, Jack and Nelle, made around a dollar a day to pay for a ten dollar rent, prices and sights not seen much today.

In addition to his time as president and California governor, Reagan was known for his acting. That, too, started in Tampico.

“Jack and Nelle were very active as actors and directors and such of the plays that they put on,” said Johnson. “There were times where children were involved in the play and the boys got to be part of the actors.”

His mother was a woman of many talents. She acted and taught piano and elocution, the art of public speaking.

“That could have a bearing on his ability to speak to people,” said Johnson. “He also had a photographic memory, and he learned to read long before he started school.”

Reagan’s family left the apartment when he was four months old to a house nearby. His family moved around the next few years: to Galesburg, Chicago and Monmouth, before returning to Tampico and eventually moving to Dixon.

Reagan visited the apartment twice after he moved away. Once in 1976 and once in 1992, reliving the first moments of his life.

“They would just come to the window and visit or they could,” said Johnson, describing a window that divided the Reagan’s apartment from their neighbor’s. “As a baby, Ronald Reagan was handed through that window, and when he visited us in 1992, he climbed through that window.”

Every year on February 6, the town comes together to celebrate the late president. Although his generation has mostly passed on, Tampico still remembers him well.

“The neighbor across our street, every evening it seemed like he’d come over and visited with my folks, and he would talk about ‘Dutch,’ and I would get very upset with him because I said ‘his name is Ronald.’ ‘I don’t care.’ We all called him Dutch.”

Tampico Area Historical Society works in tandem with the birthplace to teach others his story. The museum sees around 2,000 visitors a year, covering all 50 states and 35 countries.

“To be able to show people what it was like in the early days, it’s a privilege for us,” said Johnson. “We love for people to come and see where a president of the United States was born in rather humble circumstances.”

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