Gerald Ford's House--Presidents: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
Gerald R. Ford House, April 1955
National Historic Landmark file
National Park Service
Gerald Ford made his home in this typical, upper  middle-class suburban house from 1955 until he became the 38th  president of the United States after the resignation of President Richard Nixon  in August 1974.  Ford was the first  person to come into office under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the  United States Constitution, first as vice president and less than a year later  as president.  His basic decency and  personal integrity helped hold a fractured nation together and restore public  confidence after the scandals of the Nixon administration.  Faced with a heavily Democratic Congress  after the off-year elections of 1974, Ford was unable to get much legislation  passed during his term in office.  His  decision to give Nixon a full-presidential pardon in September 1974 was  extremely controversial and probably contributed to his defeat in the close  1976 presidential election.
Born  in Omaha, Nebraska  in 1913, Gerald R. Ford moved to Grand Rapids,   Michigan two years later when  his parents divorced.  Baptized Leslie  King, Ford took the name of his stepfather, who formally adopted him.  He attended local public schools and later  worked his way through the University   of Michigan.  He played on Michigan’s championship football team in  1932 and 1933 and was the team’s “Most Valuable Player” in 1934.  Deciding against a career in professional  football, Ford enrolled in Yale   Law School.  He graduated in the top third of his class in  1941, in spite of having to work as an assistant football and boxing  coach.  He served on an aircraft carrier  in the Pacific during World War II.  Returning to his law practice in Grand    Rapids after the war, Ford became active in community  affairs.  In 1948, local Republicans and  Michigan Senator Vandenberg, a well-known internationalist, suggested that Ford  challenge the incumbent United States Representative, who was an  isolationist.  Ford won an upset victory  in the Republican primary and easily carried the general election.  In the same year, he married   Elizabeth “Betty” Warren.
Ford  moved to Washington, DC in 1948 to take up his seat in Congress.  After the birth of their first child in 1950,  he and his wife moved to a garden apartment in the Virginia suburbs.  The Fords began to think about buying a house  in 1952.  They already owned a house in Grand Rapids to maintain their residency in his district,  but the purchase of the home  in the new Clover subdivision in Alexandria, Virginia  signified a new long-term commitment to life in Washington.  Betty Ford later recollected that it was  obvious that her husband “was not going home to Michigan. . . .  He planned to stay in Congress.”  Ford did stay in Congress, easily winning  reelection for a total of 25 years.  For  eight of those years he served as minority leader.  He worked effectively to advance Republican  policies, played an important role in party politics, was a key member of the  Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and was popular with members of both parties.
President Ford at home in the kitchen
National Historic Landmark file
National Park Service
The Fords worked with Grand Rapids architect Viktors Purins to  design their new house.  The two story  brick and clapboard building consists of two parts: a main block and a slightly projecting extension  with a two-car garage and master bedroom above.  There is a small, one-story enclosed porch on  the back of the house.  The house contains  seven rooms, two and one-half baths, and a finished basement.  In 1955, when they moved in, theirs was only  the second house on the block.  Betty  Ford was not happy with the developer’s original landscaping and did much of  the lawn and garden work herself.  In 1961,  the family installed a swimming pool, which Ford used regularly.
When Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned after pleading “no contest” to  tax fraud in the autumn of 1973, President Nixon nominated Ford as vice president,  following the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States  Constitution, ratified in 1967.  Enacted  in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination, when there was no vice president  and President Johnson had already survived one heart attack, this amendment  established procedures for selecting a new vice president.  Both houses of Congress overwhelmingly  confirmed Ford’s appointment as vice president. Ford continued to live in his Alexandria home, although the Secret Service made a  number of changes, including the installation of a command post in the garage.
Gerald R. Ford became president on August 9, 1974, the day President Nixon’s  resignation took effect.  The Fords  stayed in Alexandria  for 10 days to allow the Nixons time to move out of the White House.  Betty Ford remembered her husband’s first  morning as president, “At 7 A.M., the President of the United States, in  baby-blue short pajamas, appears on his doorstep looking for the morning paper,  then goes back inside to fix his orange juice and English muffin."
One of President Ford’s first actions was granting Nixon a full presidential  pardon.  He was hoping to begin healing  the deeply divided nation, but the short-term effect of this extremely  controversial action was further polarization.  The Democrats scored major gains in the mid-term elections that took  place less than three months after Ford assumed office, increasing their  majorities in both houses of Congress.  Ford had been a popular and effective congressman, but, as president, he  and Congress were able to find agreement on very few legislative issues.  Ford vetoed 39 measures during his first 14  months; most were sustained.
Mrs. Ford and the children in the backyard, c. 1960
National Historic Landmark file
National Park Service
President Ford’s first domestic challenge was stopping inflation, but the onset of a  recession soon shifted his emphasis to stimulating the ailing economy.  Ford used his veto power to achieve  compromises on emergency unemployment programs and housing subsidies.  Concerned about the large budget deficit, he  signed an economic stimulus bill authorizing income-tax reductions only after  Congress agreed to a ceiling on Federal expenditures.  Ford and his wife were both outspoken  supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment.
In foreign affairs, Ford sought international solutions where he could.  He worked to maintain the power and prestige of  the United States after  communists took over Cambodia  and South Vietnam.  By providing aid to both Israel and Egypt  and persuading both countries to accept an interim truce agreement, the Ford administration  sought to prevent a new war in the Middle East.  Ford met with Soviet   Union leader Leonid I. Brezhnev to set new restrictions on nuclear  weapons.
Ford won the Republican nomination for president in 1976, but lost to  Democrat Jimmy Carter in a close election.  Carter began his inaugural address by saying, “For myself and for our  nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."
In 1977, the Fords moved to a new house they built in  Rancho Mirage, California.  Ford continued to participate actively in the  political process and to speak out on important issues. He published his  memoirs in 1979 and participated in conferences at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan  and the Gerald R.  Ford Museum in Grand Rapids,  both dedicated in 1981.  He died on  December 26, 2006 in Rancho Mirage.  His  grave is on the grounds of the museum that honors him in Grand Rapids.
Plan your visit
The Gerald R. Ford, Jr.  House, a private home not open to the public, is located in Alexandria, VA. The house has been designated a National  Historic Landmark .  Click here for the National  Historic Landmark registration file: text and photos .