When I came across Diana Ross’s American Foursquare childhood home listed for sale on zillow.com a few years ago, it gave me pause to think. Are there other famous celebrities and influential people who also grew up in a Foursquare house? (The answer is YES! there are quite a few famous American Foursquare homes!)
Since then, I’ve been curating this collection of Foursquare homes associated with prominent North Americans. Every few months I come across a new one. This collection includes houses as far north as Canada to as far south as Texas. Influencers ranging from music, sports, and politics to a Nobel Peace Prize Award scientist!
Personally, I think pairing these these homes up with my Foursquare Bed & Breakfast collection would make a great road trip itinerary! ?
Disclaimer
Houses were determined to be an American Foursquare based on a review pictures found on-line. And these pictures usually only provided one side of the house…..
That being said…..quite frankly, I might be wrong in categorizing a house as an American Foursquare. If you see an error, don’t hesitate to reach out.
And just as importantly, if you know of a Foursquare that should be on this list, please reach out to me!)
Famous American Foursquare Homes
1. Dick Van Dyke (Illinois)
His entertainment career has spanned seven decades but known most for his role as “Bert” in Disney’s Mary Poppins. He also had his own television show – The Dick Van Dyke Show – that ran in the 1960s. Most recently he returned to the big screen in Mary Poppins Returns in 2018.
Dick Van Dyke grew up in the below American Foursquare house located in Danville, Illinois. In 2015, he was told that this childhood home had been condemned by the city of Danville and likely demolished.
In an interview with the local Danville newspaper, he recalled vivid and warm memories of his neighborhood and childhood home.
The center of his Danville Universe was his home on Hazel Street, where he remembers washing the wallpaper every spring, big porch in the back yard, filling the coal furnace every night. He remembers a time when only three people in the whole neighborhood had cars, and it was almost silent outside in the summertime and in the evenings, almost everyone on the block was on their front porch swings.
Source: https://www.commercial-news.com
Van Dyke ultimately stepped in and saved the house with plans to turn it into the “Dandy Vandy” Dick Van Dyke Foundation center.
Planners envision this house on North Hazel St. blossoming into a museum with “inspiring garden spaces (that) will include sculptures and vegetation symbolic to the experience of a young Dick Van Dyke.”
I’m excited to see how it turns out!
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Kansas)
Time to open up your history book, my friends. Dwight D. Eisenhower was our 34th President of the United States (1953 to 1961) and five-star Army general who was instrumental in the Allies’ win in World War II.
Eisenhower was born in Texas, but at the age of 2 moved to this American Foursquare home in Abilene, Kansas. He spent the majority of his childhood in this home.
In 1962 this home became part of the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Eisenhower Museum. Below is a virtual tour of the boyhood FOursquare home. To learn more (and see more virtual tours) check out the Museum’s website.
3 & 4. Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty (Virginia)
Two for one on this American Foursquare birthplace! Two Hollywood superstars – brother and sister – grew up in an American Foursquare in Richmond, Virginia.
Shirley MacLaine has been in a variety of films, television shows and theaters. But I think she’s best known for her role in Terms of Endearment, which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. She is also known for her interest in “New Age” beliefs, which includes reincarnation.
Her brother, Warren Beatty, is no slouch. He is an actor and filmmaker, nominated for fourteen Academy Awards and eighteen Golden Globe Awards!
I have to give credit where due – blogger Julia from HookedOnHouses.net already wrote about Shirley and Warren’s childhood home in 2015. Julia not only posted pictures of the exterior (shown below) but also was able to secure interior shots. How? The restored and rehabilitated American Foursquare was on the market in 2015 and sold for $330,000. It has three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms with a total of 1,750 square feet. Compared to today’s new houses, this Foursquare may be considered on the “smaller” side but it is almost exactly the same size as my American Foursquare!
It’s located on Fauquier Ave in a historic neighborhood (Bellevue) and based on satellite pics on Google, it looks to be flanked by two other American Foursquare homes.
A few times a year we drive down Interstate 95 (I-95) from Boston, MA to Wilmington, NC to see my in-laws. This highway does go right through Richmond, so maybe one of these times I’ll stop by and check it out.
5. Bill Clinton (Arkansas)
Eisenhower wasn’t the only President that lived in an American Foursquare as a boy.
Bill Clinton served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 and as the governor of Arkansas for several years.
When Bill was born in 1946, his mother had recently been widowed three months earlier when he husband was killed in a car crash. Bill and his mother lived with his grandparents in this American Foursquare.
For the next four years, Bill was raised by his grandparents as his mother finished schooling in New Orleans. His grandfather, who owned a general store, was a huge influence in the President’s life. Hope, AK was still segregated when Bill was young. His grandfather’s store was geographically located right smack in the middle of the area between the white and African-American communities. However his grandfather’s store was among the few places where the races mixed freely. This experience helped shape Clinton’s drive for social justice and public service.
In 2011, this house was listed as a Historic Site by the National Park Service. The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace on South Hervey Street celebraties the early boyhood of the nation’s forty-second president. (As a side note, Hope, Arkansas is also known for its “whopping great” watermelons that weigh as much as the president).
As I did research President Clintons’ birthplace, I came across the below passage about this home and the overall architecture of an American Foursquare type home that you might find amusing.
To be frank, the place is no Montiello. Built in 1917, the home is a classic foursquare, with three bedrooms upstairs and a living room, kitchen, and dining room down. If it isn’t a memorable architectural monument, its efficient design, with a squat pyramidal roof with wide overhangs, and the generous porch out front, conveys a sense of southern comfort.
huffpost.com
6. Ernest Hemingway (Illinois)
Very likely you had to read one of Ernest Hemingway’s novel in high school literature class, whether it be A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, or The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway was one of the greatest writers of all time, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature in 1954.
Ernest grew up in Oak Park, IL, a prominent suburb west of Chicago. Built in 1906, this American Foursquare house contained 6-7 bedrooms within its spacious 4,200 square feet of living space.
In 2001, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park bought the house for less then $5,000 with the intent to convert it from apartments into a learning center.
In 2012, the Foundation put the house back on the market for $525,000. They were seeking a buyer who would convert back into a single-family home as it was when Ernest was a boy.
The Foundation received 3 offers on the house. It was ultimately sold to a couple Kurt and Mary Jane Neumann who already lived in the neighborhood. They weren’t looking to move from their current house, but felt such a strong connection to Hemingway they couldn’t resist the opportunity of a lifetime.
7. Neil Young (Omemee, Canada)
If you are into music at all, you have probably heard of Neil Young. A celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter and musician who has won several Grammies and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (as a solo artist and as part of a band)!
For about 4-11 years of age, Neil lived in this American Foursquare outside of Toronto. It’s a little ironic to call it an American Foursquare since it’s located in Canada. But, you have to admit it has the features!
The house was up for sale in 2016 for $300,000. The realtor noted that the house was located in a residential and commercial zone, and therefore, could be converted to a bed and breakfast or other use.
Neil apparently passed through his old neighborhood in the 1990s with his kids, knocked on the door and asked the current owners if the could come in. It just goes to show you, no matter how famous you become, you do remember your roots.
8. Jack Nicklaus (Ohio)
jack Nicklaus, nicknamed “The Golden Bear”, is an retired professional golfer, regarded by some as the greatest golfer of all time. Over two decades in the industry, Jack won a 18 major championships, while producing 19 second-place and 9 third-place finishes.
Jack’s parents, Charlie and Helen, bought the modest 1,725 square foot, three-bedroom, one-bath house in October 1937 and sold it in March 1941. Jack Nicklaus was born Jan. 21, 1940.
Admittedly, Jack didn’t spend a long period of time in this house. However, the Columbus, Ohio neighborhood (named Old Oaks) has been designated as a historic district. And according to the local historic commission, this could potentially get on the National Register of Historic Places in honor of Jack is the current owners wanted to complete the process.
9. Sylvia Plath (Massachusetts)
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is most known for writing The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. She also won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for her poetry.
I have to add that she was a Smith College graduate (me too!)
Sylvia lived in two different American Foursquare houses during her childhood. For the first 4 years of her life, she lived in this blue one in Jamaica Plain, a southwest suburb of Boston.
In 1936, at the age of 4, the family moved to another American Foursquare northeast of Boston in the coastal town of Winthrop.
Photo courtesy of sylviaplath.info
10. Dr. Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson (Virginia)
Dr. Johnson was the first black doctor to receive staff privileges at Lynchburg General Hospital (VA), but he is more known for his role in professional tennis.
Originally, he built his tennis court next to his home in 1941 initially as a means to stay in shape. As an African-American he was not allowed access to local country clubs.
Knowing that young minorities didn’t have the opportunity to be exposed to tennis at the time, he started summer camps. Among his students? Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, the first black female and male to win the Wimbledon championship and break the color barrier for tennis.
Johnson owned the house for almost 40 years – from 1933 until his death in 1971 at age 72.
Currently, the house sits boarded up while its owner, the Whirlwind Johnson Foundation, fundraises money to restore the house and convert it into a museum and tennis camp to honor the late tennis pro.
11. Jerry Reed (Tennessee)
Jerry Reed, known through the country music industry as “the Guitar Man”, was a recording artist, a songwriter, and actor in television and movies.
As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, Reed had a string of country music hits. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017. In the mid-1970s, he acted in movies such as Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds as his truck-driving sidekick “The Snowman”, and a coach in 1998’s “The Waterboy,” starring Adam Sandler.
According to an article in the Nashville Post in January 2021, this house was up for sale and previously owned by Jerry Reed. Unfortunately I couldn’t get details since a paid subscription is required to read the article.
This house is located Music Row in Nashville (the same block as historic RCA Studio A), and is one of the few remaining historic buildings left in the area. In 2016, the house was purchased by a law firm for $1.3m to use as offices.
I did find this photo on Pinterest entitled “Jerry Reed holds court in his Music Row office, November 1975. (Photo from The Tennessean)”.
12. Grace Towns Hamilton (Georgia)
Representative Hamilton was the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. She was also the first female of her race in the Deep South to hold a public office of such consequence.
She was born in Atlanta in 1907 (passed in 1992) and the daughter of a professor (George Alexander Towns) who taught at Atlanta University (Clark Atlanta).
I believe the Foursquare in this picture is Grace’s childhood home. Next door is house built by Representative Hamilton as her home in a mid-century style.
I cam across this Foursquare through the Atlanta Preservation Center, which is a private non-profit preservation organization founded in 1979 to promote the preservation of Atlanta’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes through education and advocacy.
Listed in 2011, this Foursquare home is in a state of significant disrepair and in need of restoration.
This video taken in 2019 by Georgia Bigfoot shows further detail about the disrepair. I believe that donations can be made to the Atlanta Preservation Center to help restore this home.
13. Norm Borlaug (Iowa)
Norm Borlaug was an agricultural scientist, plant pathologist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. He is known as the “Father of the Green Revolution,” and lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger. According to Britannica, the “Green Revolution resulted in increased production of food grains (especially wheat and rice) and was in large part due to the introduction into developing countries of new, high-yielding varieties.”
Born in 1914 (passed in 2009), he moved into this Foursquare home in Iowa with his parents and sisters in 1922. This house is reportedly a Sears Kit House, and built by his father. This six-room farm house had no indoor plumbing and no central heating. This farm is where Norm learns daily farm chores from his father and starts him on his agricultural passion and career path.
This house is part of a larger maintained by The Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation. You can take a tour of the Dr. Borlaug’s home, the farm buildings and other buildings. In addition, there is a virtual tour of both his birthplace and childhood home.
The Foundation is an all-volunteer group dedicated to the preservation of Dr. Borlaug’s birthplace and boyhood homes and inspiration, engagement and empowerment through educational programming. Click here to make a donation.
14. John Carlson (Maryland)
According to Wikipedia, John Carlson is currently a professional ice hockey player (and alternate captain) for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). He participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics (Sochi, Russia) and was the highest scoring defensemen in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In 2018, John and his wife Gina bought an American Foursquare for $2.5m in Chevy Chase, MD (where Gina grew up). According to BizJournal, this American Foursquare home (built in 1916) has six bedrooms, four full and two half bathrooms, and sits on less than one acre. The backyard features a full-sized tennis court (and speculated by some to be turned into a hockey rink).
15. Tom Connally (Texas)
This Foursquare house I came upon which watching one of my new favorite shows – Cheap Old Houses on HGTV. If you love old houses, then you probably you probably follow Elizabeth Finkelstein’s incredibly popular Instagram feed that showcases architecturally intact old homes for sale under $150,000. And I love that Elizabeth and Ethan included an American Foursquare in their series – THANK YOU!!!
In Season 1, Episode 4, they visit Tom Connally’s Foursquare home. Thomas Terry Connally (1877-1963) spent his career in government as a progressive New Dealer and Southern Democrat who fought against America’s long tradition of isolationism in foreign affairs. [Admittedly, some of his politics were questionable, BUT this site is about old houses so I’m still including him in this list.]
As an adult, Connally made his home in Marlin and established a law practice. In Marlin and the surrounding congressional district, the future Senator ran for and was elected as the U.S. Representative. He lived in this house until after his wife Louise Clarkson Connally’s death in 1935.
16. Jean Harlow
This legendary actress is known by her fans as the “Original Blonde Bombshell” well before the appearnace of Madonna or Marilyn Monroe. Originally born Harlean Carpenter in 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri, she made over 35 movies before dying at the young age of 26 from kidney failure (related to childhood scarlet fever).
Usually cast as the vixen, she became a leading sex symbol in the 1930s that triggered many a brunette to grab a bottle of hydrogren peroxide and turn blonde.
According to Home’s History, she lived in this 18-room Foursquare from from 1919 to 1923. While living here, young Jean attended finishing school until she left with her mother for Hollywood.
In addition to a prolific film career in a short 10-year span, she is listed on American Film Institute’s list of the “Greatest American Screen Legends” (female) and appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
The Ola Babcock Miller House – Washington, IA
Once home to IA’s first female secretary of state, Ola Babcock Miller, this house tells a unique story. Ola Babcock Miller won an underdog victory in the ‘30s that catapulted her to the heart of Iowa’s politics. She is well-known in the state for starting the Iowa Highway Safety Patrol, and the state library is named for her.
She wasn’t the only member of the family in the public eye. Her son-in-law George Gallup, a professor at the time of Ola’s secretary of state race, correctly predicted the race’s outcome. And then he founded his polling service (Gallup Polling – still in use today) and named one of America’s 100 most influential people (Talk about some hard workers!)
After Ola, the house was turned over a few times and fell into disrepair until Clay and his partner stepped up and have spent a year renovating the home. Saving as many historical details – antique light fixtures and saved the original fireplace (decommissioned), pocket doors, floors, and woodwork – and finishing it up in historical paint colors, they kept this home’s unique history alive.
And now, it’s opened for as an AirBnB so that you can stay and enjoy!
18. Who’s Next???
Hope you enjoyed this list. If you have more info on the above homes, or know another Public Figure associated with a Foursquare house, please contact me. I’d love to include you in this post!
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