Birthplace Cottage Main Room

The living area of the main room includes a day bed and rocking chair.

NPS Photo/John Eicher

Quick Facts

Location:

West Branch, Iowa

Significance:

Part of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

Amenities

2 listed

Audio Description, Wheelchair Accessible

With no electricity or indoor plumbing, rooms in the compact cottage needed to be multi-purpose. The main room served as a combined living room, dining room, and kitchen, while the bedroom had sufficient furnishings for the parents and their three small children. Furniture like a trundle bed in the bedroom and a drop-leaf table in the main room helped save space.

Living Area

The east side of the main room, nearest the front door, served as a sitting parlor. A settee, or day bed, and chairs sat visitors, while a small table in the corner held a kerosene lamp for the family to read by.

Dining Area

The west side of the room, nearest the back door, with a drop-leaf table and cupboard, was both the dining and kitchen area. The small high-chair with the rounded back is a replica of the one used by President Hoover as a child. The original is displayed at the Visitor Center.

Kitchen

In the winter, the wood-burning stove also heated the house. The Hoovers connected the stovepipe- where the decorative plate covers the hole- high on the wall to the right of the bedroom door. In warmer seasons the family moved the stove to the summer kitchen on the back porch.

Carpet

Rag rugs like the one in the cottage covered the floors. The Hoovers kept old clothes and cloth scraps. They cut them into strips and wound them into balls until they accumulated enough for Herbert's grandmother to weave into rugs. Hulda sewed the sections together and tacked them to the floor. By putting layers of old newspapers underneath and fitting the rugs snugly against the walls, the floors would stay warmer in the winter.

• Main Room Furnishings

  
  

  During restoration work of the birthplace cottage in the late 1930’s, Lou Henry Hoover reached out to the family’s relatives to see if any of the home’s original furnishings still existed.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS

  Date created:

  06/22/2010

  Audio Transcript

  During restoration work of the Birthplace Cottage in the late 1930s, Lou Henry Hoover reached out to the family’s relatives to see if any of the home’s original furnishings still existed. Unfortunately, most had been sold at auction after Hulda Hoover’s death in 1884. The furniture you see today is a combination of reproductions and period pieces. Now think about all the activities that take place in your house. The Hoovers’ first home, because of its compact size, needed to be multi-purpose. Mattie Pemberton, Jesse Hoover’s sister remembered that one end of the main room served as a sitting parlor. Two or three chairs and a straight-backed sofa would hold visiting friends and relatives, while a small table in the corner held a kerosene lamp to read by. A sewing basket filled with needles and thread was always within arm’s reach in case Hulda wanted to darn or sew the family’s clothes. The other end of this room, which contains a drop-leaf table and a tall wooden storage hutch, functioned as both the family dining room and the kitchen. Take a closer look at the small high-chair with the rounded back. It’s a replica of the one used by President Hoover as a child. (sound effects: sounds of talking, dishes and pots being moved ) Now picture trying to cook a holiday meal for your family in this 14 x 20 cottage! You’d not only have to use the table to serve the food on, but to prepare it there as well. In the winter, the woodstove did double-duty as the home’s “central heating.” If you look high on the wall to the right of the bedroom door, you can see where the stovepipe was connected. When the weather got warm, the family would move the stove to the back porch, which became the summer kitchen. With no electricity or indoor plumbing, you can imagine that washing the dishes in the 1870’s was a little more complicated than loading the dishwasher is for modern day families! Hulda no doubt, made sure that when the dish pan was placed on the table and filled with steaming water from the teakettle, that little “Bertie” Hoover was safely out of harm’s way.