Visiting President Gerald Ford’s Boyhood Home in Grand Rapids

President Gerald R. Ford was born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, but spent his formative years in Michigan. On a recent trip through Grand Rapids, my wife and I decided to take a quick drive and see Ford’s boyhood home. 

The house is located in the historic and beautiful Heritage Hill neighborhood of Grand Rapids. 

Pulling up the house on Union Street, I was struck by how normal it looked, the kind of house any family might live in. It’s a modest, two-and-a-half-story Colonial Revival house, but behind its humble façade is pretty cool history.

Ford lived in the house from 1921 through 1930, when he was between the ages of 8 and 17. Of all his boyhood homes, Ford remembered the Union Street house most vividly in his autobiography. 

Ford recalled that he and his friends used the garage behind the house as a social club. “We learned to play penny-ante poker… it was a great hideaway because my parents wouldn’t climb the ladder to the second floor– or so I thought.”

The home is currently a private residence, but a historical marker is located outside of it. 

We didn’t spend too long there, but it was certainly enjoyable to visit and connect with the formative years of America’s 38th president.

If you are in Grand Rapids, take a quick drive by for some easy Presidential History.  If you have the time, also make sure to check out Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meyer May House, which is a few blocks away from President Ford’s Boyhood Home.