Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, Historic house in Dixon, Illinois, United States
The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home is a Queen Anne style house at 816 S. Hennepin Ave. in Dixon, Illinois, where the 40th U.S. president lived from 1920 to 1923. The two-story building sits on a stone foundation and has a gable roof, with a small outbuilding in the yard.
Built in 1891, the house was sold in 1917 and then bought by the Reagan family in 1920. After the family moved out in 1923, it changed hands several times before a local group purchased it in 1980 to preserve it.
The house is run by a private foundation and receives no government funding, a point of pride that echoes Reagan's own words about government. Visitors can see the small bedroom shared by the Reagan brothers and the workroom used by their mother.
The house is open to visitors from April through October, and guided tours help explain the rooms and the family's life there. The site is in a residential area with street parking, and the entrance is at ground level with a few steps inside.
Reagan's brother Neil later said this was the wrong house for Ronald's main memories of Dixon, since the family moved often and lived here only about two years. The brothers kept rabbits in the outbuilding and played football in the side yard.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,440 contributors worldwide.
