July 27, 2023
The next part of the tour was through the beautifully restored bank. We then climbed the stairs to the apartment Ronald Reagan was born in.
It was a three bedroom apartment, heated by wood stoves. There was no running water, so water had to be carried into the apartment. There was an outhouse for toilet.
The apartment did have electricity and a party line telephone.
The apartment is beautifully restored to look like the home of the Reagans from 1906 to 1911. While nothing in the apartment belonged to the Reagan family, the museum did a great job of finding antiques that were similar to what would’ve been in the apartment.
Nelle Reagan was good friends with her neighbor. They would trade off watching each other’s children. The children would be passed through the window.
There is a famous picture of President Reagan stepping through this window when he came back to visit Tampico.
We stepped through the window into the apartment next door. It had not been restored and it was mostly empty.
We then went downstairs and placed a donation in the donation box. We then started looking at the brochure we had been given to determine what else we should see.
My next post is about the restored bank we toured before touring the birthplace of Ronald Reagan.
Blackberry Homestead 
Ooh, the house looks so cozy!
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Interesting, I did not know anything about where he was born or his early life.
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I didn’t know anything about his earlier life either. It was very interesting.
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Interesting how many of the items there I recall from my childhood in my grandparents and neighbors houses! My best friend when I was growing up still had a telephone like that in their farmhouse in 1957 through her graduation from high school in 1968.
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My parents had a party line until the phone company stopped supporting them in the ‘80s. I remember my dad complaining about the cost!
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