During the afternoon of Wednesday July 23, 2025, my companions and I had become completely enthralled with the childhood of Ronald Reagan. We had spent a little over an hour in Tampico, Illinois where we toured Reagan’s birthplace, and then visited a handful of other sites associated with our 40th President.
Known as ‘Dutch’ since his birth in Tampico on February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was raised with his older brother Neil in a low-income family by a loving, hardworking Protestant mother and a Catholic father who was a shoe salesman and habitual alcoholic. Due to Jack Reagan’s inability to hold a steady job for very long, some of which was caused by his drinking issues, the Reagan’s relocated numerous times during Ronald’s seemingly unstable childhood. In December of 1920, after the variety store where Ronnie’s dad worked had closed down, the Reagan’s packed up and moved to Dixon, which was located roughly 28 miles Northeast of Tampico. Once in Dixon, Jack Reagan and his former boss H.C. Pitney opened a shoe store together, which was called the Fashion Boot Shop. That store remained in business until the Great Depression caused mass chaos throughout the nation.
At 2:25pm, the three of us were in the air-conditioned comforts of our Jeep and headed along the same route to Dixon as Jack Reagan and his family drove in late 1920. We had a great time visiting the Reagan sites in the small village of Tampico, but at the same time, I was excited for our return trip to Dixon, a city with a population of just over 15,000 people. A decade earlier, I had posed for photos at a large number of Reagan sites in Dixon during my first visit in 2015. But as Vicki navigated the backroads of Northwestern Illinois during our half hour trip, I heard Tom tell his wife that there were a few other sites associated with our 40th President’s childhood that he had recently discovered and wanted us to see. I was all in, and I couldn’t wait to see what my photographer had up his sleeve.
As the afternoon’s clock struck three o’clock, we arrived at a large, white, two-story Queen Anne style home located along South Hennepin Avenue on the Southside of Dixon, Illinois. Although the home was built in 1891, it became historically significant 29 years later when nine-year-old Ronald Reagan moved into the rented house with his parents and brother in December 1920.
On February 6, 1984, Ronald Reagan returned to that Dixon home where he not only celebrated his 73rd birthday, but the President, known by his Secret Service code name ‘Rawhide’, also helped officially dedicate the building as the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, with his brother Neil and wife Nancy at his side.
Unfortunately for the three of us, the interior of the Reagan home was closed to the public on that Wednesday, which forced Tom to photograph me in various spots around the exterior of the historic structure. And that was okay. Not only had I posed in the home’s interior during our 2015 visit, but we also heard some of the rooms were in the process of being renovated and my photographer wasn’t sure how that would affect an interior tour anyway. While Vicki sat in the shade near the Reagan statue in the side yard and searched her phone for a reasonably priced hotel in Dixon, Tom carried me to the front of the home where I stood on the sidewalk in the footsteps of our 40th President. I also posed in the yard where Ron, Neil and their friends played pick-up football games during their time at the home.
There’s no doubt in my mind the beautiful Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home is the pride and joy and the centerpiece of the Reagan Presidential Trail in Dixon, Illinois. But according to Neil Reagan, the town of Dixon chose the wrong house to have been bestowed the honor of being called the ‘official’ boyhood home. The older Reagan brother was quoted as saying the house which was designated the Boyhood Home was the “wrong one for Ronald’s principal memories of the town”. Moon’s claim likely originated because he and his famous brother lived in the two-story home for less than four years, while they resided in a handful of other homes in Dixon throughout the President’s formative years.
For nearly four years, Ron and Neil shared a second-floor bedroom, despite the house having three bedrooms. Ronald’s mother used the third as a work room. While living in that first Dixon home, the two Reagan brothers found themselves in their fair share of trouble. Ronald was nearly killed when he and Neil crawled under a steaming train just before departure. And in another incident, the future President and a friend fired a hole in the ceiling of the home with a shotgun.
After he became President of the United States, Ronald Reagan reflected positively on his time living with his family on Hennepin Avenue. The President once said, “Our home on Hennepin Avenue had a small table in the living room with a bowl that my mother often filled with popcorn. We gathered there in the evenings.” As children, the Reagan boys were reportedly forbidden from entering the parlor and Dutch would hide pennies under a loose tile by the fireplace to keep them from his brother. During his 1984 visit to the home, the President revisited the spot, confirmed the story, and placed some coins under the tile to be seen by visitors.
Our visit to the Reagan boyhood home lasted nearly 30 minutes as Tom and I were thoroughly immersed in the ambiance of the site. Ronald was a nine-year-old grade schooler when he moved into the home with his parents but was a teenager when the Reagan’s packed up and moved into another rented apartment closer to downtown Dixon.
When the three of us returned to the Jeep, we began our quest to visit as many Ronald Reagan childhood sites as possible. For the next three-and-a-half hours, Tom, Vicki, and I crisscrossed the entire town of Dixon where I had the honor of standing in the footsteps of our 40th President. We visited the public library, a church, two schools, three more houses, and we ended up at Lowell Park where Reagan spent much of his youth working as a lifeguard. At one point during our self-guided tour of the city, I also visited the site where Abraham Lincoln joined the Illinois militia at Fort Dixon in 1832 during the Black Hawk War. Let’s face it – Dixon was a treasure trove of Presidential sites!
It was an incredible day, and I hope you enjoy the images of me standing in the footsteps of Dixon’s pride and joy – Ronald “Dutch” Reagan.
When Tom placed me into the refreshing water of the Rock River at Lowell Park and I posed where Ronald Reagan served as lifeguard, it marked the end of a long and exhausting tour of the 40th President’s childhood sites in Dixon, Illinois. We had spent well over three hours going from one site to another, and everything seemed to go without a hitch – until my camera guy tweaked his right knee as he dodged logs, rocks, and uneven terrain to step down onto the shore of the river. Thankfully my clumsy oaf of a photographer didn’t stumble and fall into the water, but he did have difficulty when it came time for him to climb back up onto the higher ground near the beach area. As a matter of fact, Tom resembled Chester Goode from the TV show Gunsmoke as he hobbled and limped back to the Jeep where Vicki waited for us.
Hungry, sore, and a little on the cranky side, my photographer axed his wife what she might want for dinner – and her answer didn’t help Tom’s demeanor one bit. The first thing out of Vicki’s mouth was the one restaurant my photographer despises the most – Olive Garden. But when they discovered the nearest Olive Garden was over forty miles away, my two companions settled on a place called ‘Mom’s Restaurant’, which was located less than a mile North of downtown Dixon.
Mom’s turned out to be the perfect choice as both Tom and Vicki ordered what they’ve been hankerin’ for – my photographer had fried chicken, while his wife satisfied her Italian itch with a full plate of spaghetti. Not only did my travel mates seem to enjoy their meal, but I overheard my camera guy say, “The Colonel should take lessons on how to fry a chicken. This may have been the best food we’ve had on the entire trip.” And as Vicki plucked a wayward noodle from her chest, she couldn’t have agreed more.
With their bellies full of yard bird and pasta, the three of us made our way to the Quality Inn that Vicki had reserved while she sat in the side yard at Reagan’s boyhood home. By 8:30pm, my companions had their gear lugged to the room and I had taken my usual place alongside the television set where the three of us watched a few episodes of American Pickers.
After the lights were extinguished at 10:30pm, I stood alone in the darkness with my thoughts to keep me company – and I couldn’t get Ronald Reagan out of my mind. Little Dutch rose from the bowels of poverty and worked hard with the help of his loving mother to carve a niche for himself in Dixon, the town where he spent his formative years growing into the leader he became. But it was his communication skills, the love of people, and his eagerness to entertain that put him in the nation’s spotlight. Not as a politician, but as a Hollywood actor – and his ability to work well in front of an audience or a motion picture camera helped Ronald Wilson Reagan land the biggest role of his life – President of the United States.
Like “Donald” Reagan said during his senior year in high school, “Life is just one grand sweet song, so start the music.” As Tom and Vicki snored the night away, that’s just what I did – and what a way to end an amazing day!
“Dominique, inique, inique; s’en allait tout simplement, Routier pauvre et chantant. En tous chemins, en tous lieux, Il ne parle que du bon Dieu, Il ne parle que du bon Dieu.”
