![National Park Service Logo](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/parkblackband.gif) |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/blkshim.gif) |
![National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/prntarrw.gif) ![National Park Service Arrowhead](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/prnttitl.gif) |
|
|
|
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
House of the Maples
|
|
|
|
|
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/spacer.gif) |
|
Herbert Hoover NHS Collection |
Hulda Hoover stands in front of the Hoover's second home in a photograph taken from Downey Street around 1882. |
|
![A brown metal sign faces a young maple tree on green lawn. A brown metal sign faces a young maple tree on green lawn.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/heho/photosmultimedia/images/house_of_maples_site_285w.jpg) |
Herbert Hoover NHS collection | Nothing remains of the "House of the Maples". An interpretive sign and a young maple tree mark the lot where it stood. |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
House of the Maples (Second Hoover Home)
The house where the Hoover family lived from 1879-1884 no longer stands, but the site is marked by an interpretive sign. Maple trees lined the front yard and a wild crabapple tree grew in back of this spacious four-room home.
The family had lived in the house for one and a half years when Jesse Hoover died at age 34 from heart failure brought on by pneumonia. In 1884 Herbert's mother died from typhoid fever and pneumonia. The children were separated and sent to live with relatives.
|
![The P.T. Smith House is a light green two story frame house shaded by trees. The P.T. Smith House is a light green two story frame house shaded by trees.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/heho/photosmultimedia/images/pt_smith_house_285w.jpg) |
NPS PHOTO | The P.T. Smith House stands next to the site of the House of the Maples, the Hoover family's second home. |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
P.T. Smith House
The P.T. Smith House next door is the only house that Hoover remembered when he visited West Branch many years later. While living in the House of Maples, the Hoover children and Smith children were playmates. Their homes stood at the base of Cook's Hill, a favorite winter sledding spot.
"That was a great long hill where on winters’ nights, to satisfy our human craving for speed, we slid down at terrific pace with our tummies tight to home-made sleds."
Herbert Hoover
|
The site of the House of the Maples is not handicapped accessible, but may be approached on the gravel trace of Downey Street. The interpretive marker is on a grass lawn.
The P.T. Smith House is not open to the public, but may be approached on the gravel trace of Downey Street.
|
Take a Virtual Tour
This is a stop on the virtual tour of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
|
| | |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/templates/images/graphics/spacer.gif) |
|
|
|
|
![Black and white photo of Herbert Hoover as an infant. Black and white photo of Herbert Hoover as an infant.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081008123007im_/http://www.nps.gov/mwr/customcf/apps/CMS_HandF/Pictures/HEHO_m8od2wzh_baby_herbert.jpg) |
|
Did You Know?
In 1874, the year Herbert Hoover was born, Ernest Shackleton (an early Antarctic explorer), Honus Wagner (one of the greatest baseball players in history), Harry Houdini (a famous professional magician), and Robert Frost (Pulitzer Prize winning poet) were also born.
more...
|
|
|
|
Last Updated: October 22, 2007 at 11:05 EST |