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Boardwalks along Downey Street connect historic buildings with the Presidential Library and Museum and downtown West Branch.

Downey Street

Downey Street, address of Herbert Hoover's birthplace, is the traditional North-South road in and out of West Branch. The historic trace of Downey Street in Herbert Hoover National Historic Site connects the park's historic buildings with the Presidential Library and Museum and historic downtown West Branch. Downey Street Trace is open to pedestrian traffic only.

The buildings, boardwalks, fences, and street lamps along Downey Street Trace create a neighborhood setting that commemorates and celebrates Herbert Hoover’s life, rather than fully recreate the setting of his youth.

The houses described here serve as administrative offices to the National Historic Site, and are not open to the public.

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The C.E. Smith House is restored to its appearance circa 1915.

C.E. Smith House

The house immediately north of the Birthplace Cottage across Penn Street is the C.E. Smith house. Charles Smith, a carpenter, built the house in 1903. He and his wife lived in it until 1934. The house was moved to its present site from its original location several blocks to the south in 1969.

When Herbert Hoover was growing up a Methodist Church, built in 1870, occupied the lot. In 1913, the church was sold and removed. A new church was built three blocks to the north. The Hoover Birthplace Society moved the parsonage from the lot in 1956.

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The front facade of the Amanda Garvin Cottage is restored to its appearance circa 1905.

Amanda Garvin Cottage

North of the C.E. Smith house is one of the neighborhood’s oldest buildings. Amanda Garvin lived in this quaint little cottage in 1874. Young Herbert Hoover would have passed by on his way to school. The house is a good example of Gothic cottage architecture as developed in eastern Iowa during the 1870s.

By 1878 Miss Garvin moved from the cottage and used it as a rental property. Subsequent owners remodeled and added to the house. The editor of the West Branch Local Record wrote in 1888, "with a new porch, new kitchen, and well, and other improvements the place… would hardly be known."

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The front of the Laban Miles House is restored to its appearance circa 1905.

Laban Miles House

In the large home across Downey Street from the Amanda Garvin Cottage lived Herbert Hoover’s distinguished uncle Laban Miles and his aunt Agnes Minthorn Miles (Hulda Hoover’s younger sister). Laban and Agnes were frequent visitors to the Hoover home.

The house was built between 1869 and 1872. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Miles as Indian agent for the Osage and Kaw in Oklahoma. The family moved to the Osage Indian Reservation and rented their home to the Methodist Church.

In 1882, eight-year-old Herbert spent eight months with the Miles family in the Oklahoma Territory. Hoover had fond memories of his visit to the Indian Agency: "I had constant association with the little Indians at the agency school. We learned much aboriginal lore of the woods and streams, and how to make bows and arrows."

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The exterior of the Dr. Leech House is restored to its appearance circe 1920.

Dr. Leech House

In 1920, Dr. Lewis J. Leech built this home and moved here from the Laban Miles House next door, where he had lived since 1884.

Dr. Leech practiced medicine in West Branch for 55 years. He also served as an elected representative to the Iowa General Assembly. He continued to live in this home until he died in 1937. Former President Herbert Hoover sent a message of sympathy, read at the funeral of Dr. Leech, which remembed "his long life of usefulness to the community and loyalty to his neighbors and friends."

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The exterior of the Hannah Varney House is restored to its appearance circa 1900.

Hannah Varney House

Hannah Varney built this house in 1899 shortly after divorcing her husband. The West Branch Times described the house as being of "fine appearance and finished in modern style."

After living in the house with her six children for less than one year, Hannah Varney moved to Iowa City and married Robert Ward. She left the house to her daughters, Cora and Clara, who lived in it until 1915.

In 1967 the National Park Service moved the Hannah Varney House from its original location on the lot just south of where it now stands.

Take a Virtual Tour

This is a stop on the virtual tour of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.