A rededication ceremony will take place Monday at the Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens in Omaha.
The site near South 32nd Street and Woolworth Avenue has been renovated and now includes new interpretive exhibits, an interpretive kiosk, accessibility improvements and renovation of the Presidential Colonnade.
The Great Plains Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Omaha Parks Foundation and City of Omaha Parks, Recreation and Public Property will host the event open to the public at 7 p.m. Speakers will include Mayor Jim Suttle and Kenneth J. Backman, one of the original landscape architects involved with the design development and implementation of the park.
The site commemorates the birthplace of Leslie King Jr., who later became Gerald R. Ford Jr., who was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in 1974. Ford was born in the home that stood there in 1913. It was torn down following a fire in 1971.
Upon Ford's succession to the presidency in 1974, Omaha businessman James Paxson purchased the property intending to build a memorial on the site, which was dedicated in 1977.
