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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - On the evening of August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon announced his resignation as President of the United States — and the eyes of the nation turned to a four-bedroom brick Colonial house at 514 Crown View Drive in Alexandria.
Ford's connection to Alexandria actually began four years before Crown View Drive. In 1951, during his second term in Congress, Ford and his family moved to Parkfairfax — a rental community of apartments and townhouses at 1521 Mount Eagle Place, built in 1942 and now on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the City of Alexandria. The Fords arrived with their young son Michael; their second son, Jack, was born there in 1952. Parkfairfax housed a number of other members of Congress over the years — including, notably, a future president: Richard M. Nixon also rented a home there. In 1953, while the Fords were still living at Parkfairfax, construction began on the house that would become their home on Crown View Drive.
Gerald R. Ford and his family moved into the newly completed house at 514 Crown View Drive in 1955, during his fourth term in Congress, according to the City of Alexandria. Built on a quarter-acre lot in the Clover neighborhood, the brick and wood-siding Colonial had four bedrooms, a finished rec room in the basement and a two-car garage. The Fords later added a backyard pool. They moved from Parkfairfax with their two oldest children — Michael was five, Jack was three. Steven was born in 1956 and Susan in 1957. The family also had a dog, Brown Sugar, who enjoyed swimming in the pool.
For 19 years, the house on Crown View Drive was home base. Neighbors heard the splash each fine morning as Ford swam laps. They saw him mowing the lawn and playing with the children. The three boys attended T.C. Williams High School and were active in sports. According to former Alexandria Mayor William Euille, who attended T.C. Williams alongside the two oldest Ford sons from 1965 to 1968, Euille and Mike Ford both served as senior class officers. The children walked to school and rode their bikes through the neighborhood. Susan attended Holton Arms in Maryland and babysat for neighborhood children. Betty, meanwhile, devoted herself to the children's activities — Cub Scouts, Brownies, baseball and football — and was active in the Alexandria Cancer Fund. Soon after leaving Alexandria for the White House, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and helped bring the disease to national attention.
Ford coached youth sports and served on the vestry at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill on Seminary Road. It was a middle-class house in a middle-class neighborhood, the kind of place a congressman from Michigan could afford on a government salary.
Ford became Vice President on December 6, 1973, following the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew, according to the City of Alexandria. At the time, the U.S. Naval Observatory was being readied as the new Vice Presidential residence, but the Ford family remained at Crown View Drive — as former Vice Presidents had done. Alterations were quickly made to the house to accommodate Secret Service protection: the garage was converted into a room for Secret Service agents, numerous phone lines were installed, bulletproof glass was placed in the master bedroom windows, and steel rods were placed under the driveway to support an armored limousine. In 1974, while his son Steven was attending T.C. Williams, Vice President Ford delivered the keynote address to the graduating class. The quiet suburban house on Crown View Drive had become something else entirely.
By August 1974, the end was near for Nixon. On August 1 — a full week before Nixon's public announcement — Nixon's chief of staff Al Haig came to Crown View Drive to warn Ford that a resignation was likely and that he should prepare to assume the presidency, according to Ford's 1979 memoir, "A Time to Heal." Ford later wrote that Haig told him the evidence on a forthcoming tape was "devastating" and that there would probably be "either an impeachment or a resignation." Ford turned to Betty and said: "I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house."
He was right. On the evening of August 8, Nixon went on television and announced he would resign. The nation exhaled. And Crown View Drive went from a quiet residential street to the center of the American political universe.
Alexandria police closed the street to traffic. A stand of microphones went up on the lawn. The Alexandria Gazette reported that day: "Crown View Drive came alive with news media personnel, neighbors and curious passers-by. Neighbors joined the professionals in the picture taking experience as Ford entered, then resumed the friendly vigil waiting for something to happen. It didn't."
Neighbor Louise Abbruzzese allowed reporters to use her telephone, television and bathroom as they waited hours for Ford to arrive home, according to a CNN transcript from December 2006. Her husband Peter provided a pitcher of martinis in their garage as a way for reporters to get out of the rain. In thanks, the press presented the Abbruzzese family with a plaque for their garage wall. It reads: "First press room of President Gerald R. Ford, August 8, 1974."
Ford took the oath of office the next day, August 9, 1974. That night, close friends gathered at the Ford home for an informal dinner. According to the Dallas Morning News, a couple of White House servants came over to help prepare and clean up.
Two days later, the Fords attended an Episcopal service at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, 3606 Seminary Road. The sermon by the Rev. William Dols Jr. addressed the need to "pick up the broken pieces" of Nixon's presidency, according to the Alexandria Gazette Packet.
For the first 10 days of his presidency, Ford commuted down I-395 from Alexandria to the White House. According to Time Magazine: "Preceded by a police car and trailed by four other vehicles, including a Secret Service station wagon and a press van, his limousine was hard to miss. Many motorists waved a cheerful if somewhat bemused good-morning as the Chief Executive, immersed in his morning newspapers, sailed past them in the lane reserved for buses and car pools."
In September 1974, Ford told the Alexandria Police Association: "We have many fond memories of living in Alexandria, and we aren't going to sell our home. We are going to come back there. I don't know how soon." The Fords did not return to live on Crown View Drive. After leaving the presidency in 1977, they retired to Palm Springs, California, and Vail, Colorado. Betty Ford later wrote: "For me, leaving the White House wasn't nearly so much of a wrench as leaving our house in Alexandria."
In January 1977, shortly after leaving office, the Fords sold 514 Crown View Drive for $137,000, according to city property records.
Gerald Ford passed away on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93. His funeral plans, established years before his death, called for the motorcade to pass through Alexandria in remembrance of his long residency there, according to the City of Alexandria. On the evening of December 30, 2006, President Ford's funeral procession passed through Alexandria as it traveled from Andrews Air Force Base to the U.S. Capitol.
Hundreds of Alexandrians lined Washington Street to say farewell to one of their most famous residents. As the long motorcade proceeded northward, mourners were moved to see Betty Ford wave to the crowd from inside the procession. Some placed their hands over their hearts as the President's hearse passed; others gave a military salute. Some in the crowd applauded, but most stood in respectful silence.
That week, Mayor William Euille announced plans to commemorate Ford and his affection for his adopted hometown. A committee chaired by former Councilman David G. Speck — and including Ferdinand Day, Jessica Gibson, Pat Troy and Donnan C. Wintermute — was appointed to consider proposals from the public. In October 2007, the committee recommended naming a new park and street in Ford's honor. The Planning Commission approved renaming a new street off Janney's Lane — originally designated Barecroft Place — as President Ford Lane. City Council approved naming a new open space at 1422-1426 Janney's Lane, at the southeast corner of North Quaker Lane, President Gerald R. Ford Park.
Ford's connection to Alexandria is also commemorated at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial on Callahan Drive. On February 17, 1975, President Ford was at the Memorial for the unveiling of the bronze Gerald R. Ford Masonic Medallion and plaque now displayed in the auditorium, according to the City of Alexandria. Also on display at the Memorial is a football from the East-West Shrine Game bearing the autograph "Gerald Ford." An exceptional athlete and star football player at the University of Michigan, a young Jerry Ford played for the East in the East-West Shrine Game in 1935.
The house at 514 Crown View Drive is now assessed at $1.33 million, according to city property records. A plaque by the front door marks its status as a National Historic Landmark — designated in 1985. It remains a private residence in the Clover neighborhood of Alexandria, on the same quiet street where a neighbor once put out a pitcher of martinis for the White House press corps.
