The Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration will be here in no time! 

February 6, 2011 will mark the 100th birthday of the 40th president of the United States.  Northwestern Illinois is full of interesting sites and opportunities to learn more about one of America's most noteable men.   The town of Tampico gets boasting rights as his birthplace - so take a moment, read about and go see this great little museum ! 

In a quiet little rural town called Tampico, Illinois, above a local bakery on a cold February day was born one of America’s favorite sons, Ronald Wilson Reagan – the 40^th President of the United States.

Ronald Wilson Reagan came into this world without pomp and circumstance, without bands playing, without parades.  His beginnings were humble.  The second son of Jack and Nell Reagan he learned the moral values of the Midwest.  The communities and their people shaped him and stayed with him throughout his entire life.

The landscape of northwest Illinois holds the ancestral and familial beginnings of the Reagan family.  Everywhere there is a record marking homes, jobs, marriages, births and deaths for his great-grandparents, grandparents and parents.  For Ronald, his father worked primarily throughout the early years as a salesman, requiring the family to move a great deal.  However, Jack and Nell Reagan found comfort in a small upstairs apartment from 1908 until 1911 where both their sons, John Neil and Ronald Wilson Reagan were born.

Through documentation and research this carefully recreated apartment contains period furniture and artifacts depicting the lifestyle and home as it may have appeared during the time the Reagan’s inhabited the apartment.   Local volunteers warmly share the story of the birth of one of their local hometown heroes.

 The Ronald Reagan Birthplace Museum 264.64 KB