Guided Tour of Birthplace Home

Go on a guided tour that goes inside the birthplace home of the 42nd President of the United States. Located at 117 South Hervey Street, this two-story home in American Foursquare design is the first residence of William Jefferson (Blythe) Clinton. Built in 1917 for Dr. H.J.S. Garrett, the home resembles the design of a house in France lived in by Garrett before returning and settling in Hope. The Cassidy family purchased the structure in 1940 while their daughter, Virginia, was in high school. In 1943, Virginia Cassidy met William Blythe, a traveling salesman, at Tri-State Hospital in Shreveport; Cassidy had moved to Louisiana after her high school graduation for nurses training. The pair were married after a brief courtship and immediately before Blythe was shipped out to Italy for military duty during World War II. By May 1946, Virginia Blythe was pregnant with her first child and living in the home in Hope when her husband was killed after his car veered off a wet road outside Sikeston, Missouri. Virginia gave birth to her son, William Jefferson Blythe III, on August 19. Bill, as he was known, was raised in this home by his widowed mother and her parents for the first four years of his life. Virginia returned to Louisiana in 1948 where she trained to become a nurse anesthetist. In 1950, Virginia married Roger Clinton and the new family relocated to their own home on Thirteenth Street in Hope. 30-minute Guided Tours begin at the Visitor Center; there is free parking around the visitor center to accommodate cars, buses, RVs and accessibility needs. Tours leave the visitor center every thirty minutes beginning at 9:00 a.m. CST/CDT; the final tour each day leaves the visitor center at 3:30 p.m. CST/CDT. This walking tour may involve several periods of time standing outdoors in various temperatures as well as standing and walking up stairs inside the Birthplace Home. Note: only the first floor of the Birthplace Home is accessible. For visitors unable to climb the stairs inside the house, a picture book is available to view.