Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
National Historic Site · West Branch, Iowa
The birthplace and boyhood ground of the thirty-first president, preserved as a small Quaker village on the edge of West Branch: a two-room cottage where Hoover was born in 1874, his father's blacksmith shop, a one-room schoolhouse, the Friends meeting house, and a tallgrass prairie restored behind them. Hoover and his wife Lou are buried on the hill above. The Presidential Library and Museum shares the site and is run separately by the National Archives, which matters because the two have different opening arrangements and different prices.
110 Parkside Drive, West Branch, Iowa, 52358, United States
THE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE IS FREE — the village, the birthplace cottage, the blacksmith shop, the schoolhouse, the meeting house, the gravesite and the prairie, with free parking. Grounds are open daily, generally 9:00 to 17:00. ⚠ THE HERBERT HOOVER PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM SHARES THE SITE BUT IS A SEPARATE OPERATION RUN BY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, with its own admission charge and its own calendar. ⚠ THE MUSEUM HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR A MAJOR RENOVATION WITH A STATED REOPENING OF SUMMER 2026 — this row does not assert that it has reopened. Check hoover.archives.gov before travelling if the museum is the reason for the trip; the free National Park Service site is open regardless.
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