Fails me. Teaching the tradition. The [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation like us on facebook. All weekend American History tv is joining caught Cable Partners cox Cable Partners to showcase the history of omaha, nebraska. Learn more visit www. Cspan. Org citiestour. This is American History tv on cspan3. Well, this is the ford birth site and gardens. Gerald ford was the 30th 38th president of the United States and he was born here, but when he was born here, he was born as leslie king. He was born july 14, 1913, and stayed in omaha for about two weeks. Gerald fords mother and father didnt really get along. And this was evident from the beginning, apparently, and so they separated. And they moved from here to around the chicago area and then to michigan. He took his adopted fathers name, gerald r. Ford, and thats how we know him today. And i think it is very interesting that someone from a singleparent family was able to go on to be president of the United States. This was a vacant lot when gerald ford became president. Fellow republican and Community Supporter and in omaha james m. Paxton saw this site as nothing more than a weedy lot and thought it was not something befitting of a president. And so he decided to make something of this corner lot. Well, i am one of the Landscape Architects, a part of the team that developed the winning Design Competition for the birth site gardens right here. And to start with, there was a student Design Competition with the university of nebraska at lincoln for the architectural students and they developed the design for the birth site here which we are sending it right now. Standing in right now. And that basis was to develop the pattern garden walls and the pattern of the foundation of the home, so these would be the front stairs coming up to the home. You can imagine sitting on the porch out here overlooking the hanscom park and our task as Landscape Architects would be to develop a plan that would show president ford going from his birthplace to his place in the white house. And so that is the second half of this project. President ford visited the garden several times, but the most memorable time for me was the dedication of the Betty Ford Rose garden in 1980. We are standing in the north half of the garden, and this was the part of the design and they landscape architectural professionals were asked to participate in, and the president ial colonnade here is patterned after the south portico from the white house. Visiting that day with president ford, we walked up to the central plaque commemorating his presidency here. There is a quotation of his inaugural speech included in the plaque. And the bronze plaque piece is from the department of the treasury, and we call this the president ial colonnade because we have a list of all the president s past and present on all of the tablets here. When we were standing up the plaque at the plaque he was telling me about the museum in michigan and he was wanting to have at that time more connection between the museum and his birthplace, but it was just fun to stand there with him and to talk about the things that he saw here and the things that he would like to see in michigan as well as that connection between his birthplace and where he grew up. We are located at the interpretive gazebo. And this design of this gazebo is representative of a high portion or a tower of the home. In each one of these windows here, there is a little segment of president fords life. The next window around covers some of his presidency. And things that were important to him during his administration. The window directly behind me is dedicated to betty ford. As the first lady. This particular one we are standing in front of shows present ford as an athlete. He loved golf and skiing. We actually have some of his golf clubs that were donated here. Now were standing in the Betty Ford Rose garden. And this was a plan that was developed in 19791980. And it was originally thought that once the project got started, the birth site got started, mr. Paxton started securing property to the west, which became the rose garden here. West, which became the rose garden here. Our design allowed for a passageway, a wall, and what we call the governor circle, where we talk about the history of nebraska and all the territorial in state governors are listed here. Then we get down to the rose garden area. In the rose garden, there are two bronze busts, one of gerald ford and one of betty ford. President ford was always extremely honored to be here very grateful for developing the site, humbled by it all, but when it comes right down to it, he would be just like you and i visiting here today very downtoearth, warm person. Just wonderful people. Throughout the weekend American History tv is featuring omaha, nebraska