Inside the Hoover Library. (KCRG TV photo)
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch is back open to the public this week for the first time since March 2020.
The National Archives and Records Administration gave it the green light to re-open because of declining COVID-19 numbers in Cedar and Johnson Counties. Museum Director, Tom Schwarz, told KCRG TV they are excited to get back open.
“My staff has been chomping at the bit to open to the public,” Schwarz says.
The museum for the only Iowan elected to the nation’s highest office brings in more than 35,000 visitors to the city of just more than 2,000. Steven Grace, with Main Street Sweets, tells KCRG TV they’ve missed that foot traffic over the last 16 months. He’s happy the museum is back open for more than one reason.
“Business-wise but just also for the community,” Grace says, “I think it’s a big deal for people to recognize and understand the things that Hoover did for his life, and it just helps promote things a little bit more and show what we got here in West Branch.”
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is now open Tuesday through Saturday. If you want to visit, you will have to buy tickets online.