Former governor visits Reagan Boyhood Home

DIXON – Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recently visited the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home and is looking forward to continuing the site’s legacy and educational value.

In December, the Young America’s Foundation announced that it would be the new caretaker and owner of home and visitors center at 810 and 816 S. Hennepin Ave. in Dixon.

Walker, CEO and President of the YAF, recently toured the home and looks forward to its reopening, which could be as soon as spring, depending on the coronavirus pandemic.

The goal is to bring hundreds of students a year to Dixon for seminars and educational retreats.

“Our hope being that, not only will people come in larger number to tour the home, but that we will tie it in with young people, preserve the historic aspect of not only Ronald Reagan the man, but also the things that he stood for,” Walker said.

Since 1998, the YAF has owned Reagan’s 688-acre Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara, California, known as the Reagan Ranch and the only home he owned while president.

The Ronald Reagan Home Preservation Foundation has owned the home, which was built in 1891, since 1980. It was there, in the 1920s, that Reagan spent his formative years in Dixon, which he always considered his hometown. Reagan was born in Tampico.

In 1962, Reagan joined YAF’s National Advisory Board, eventually becoming the organization’s honorary national chairman. In 1974, the foundation sponsored a nationally syndicated radio program featuring Reagan as the then-governor of California.

During each year of Reagan’s presidency, he hosted students attending YAF’s National Conservative Student Conference at the White House.

As with the Reagan Ranch, YAF will preserve the home through private funding rather than through state or federal taxpayer dollars.