Yorba Linda Site for Nixon Library Set

Yorba Linda officials on Monday formally announced details of an agreement to build the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library on a nine-acre site near the former President’s birthplace.

The city had been negotiating with the Richard Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation for months, after delays scuttled a deal to build the library in San Clemente near the former Western White House.

In October, Yorba Linda officials agreed to purchase six acres of property for the library site from the Yorba Linda school district for $1.3 million. But now the city will try to acquire the entire nine-acre parcel that made up the original Nixon homestead, Mayor Roland Bigonger said at a news conference. The foundation has agreed to restore the small wood-frame home where Nixon was born in 1913 and open it to the public.

Bigonger said the city is preparing an environmental impact report, which should be completed by March. Construction, set to begin in September, is to be completed by January, 1990.

Nixon plans to attend the ground breaking next fall, a spokesman said.

The foundation has raised $25 million in private donations to pay for construction of the library, which initially will include Nixon’s vice presidential papers, personal papers since he left office, manuscripts for his six books and his private White House diaries.

The long-awaited library will be the first that does not include presidential materials. The government-owned 44 million pages of documents and 4,000 hours of tapes accumulated during Nixon’s term are being stored in a Virginia warehouse where national archivists are removing classified information.

Unlike the eight other presidential libraries, which are run by the National Archive, the Nixon library will be privately operated.

Bigonger said foundation officials have assured the city that the library will accurately reflect the Nixon years and will include a history of the Watergate period.

When asked if the city should honor a President forced to resign from office, Bigonger said: “Our intent is to preserve history, not judge history.”