For Some, It Was a Day to Recall Nixon

It may not have been a holiday officially designed to honor Richard M. Nixon, but hundreds of visitors spent Presidents’ Day at his presidential library and birthplace here.

Although library officials declined to release figures, spokesman Kevin Cartwright said attendance was up by about 20% over an average Monday and that even Saturday’s and Sunday’s crowds were about 20% larger than usual.

“We thought it would be nice to come here today,” said Randy Jewitt of Garden Grove as his family--wife, three children and his wife’s parents--relaxed by the blossoming flowers and the reflecting pond after viewing the exhibits.

Jewitt, 39, said he was no fan of Nixon while the man was serving as the nation’s 37th President. “I was probably one of those who thought it served him right,” Jewitt said of Nixon’s downfall. “But when you reflect on his accomplishments, you see he did a lot of good things too.”

Jewitt said he was particularly impressed to learn that Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency, began the first war on drugs, and opened up Alaska for oil developments.

“These are the key issues that all politicians talk about today, but he was working on them 20 years ago,” he said.

The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace opened last July. It features exhibits on Nixon’s early years, his vice presidency, his presidential campaigns, the Watergate tapes, domestic and foreign achievements, and also displays of gifts Nixon received from all over the world, and of life-size statues of world leaders.

The house where Nixon was born is next to the library.

Jewitt’s 13-year-old son, Mike, was a more reluctant visitor. He had to pass up an invitation to Disneyland to accompany his family to Yorba Linda, but he wound up enjoying the Watergate exhibit, he said.

“He thought the library was just going to be a lot of books,” said his mother, Marianne Jewitt, “but the only books we saw were in the bookshop.”

Cartwright said it seemed that many visitors were especially interested in the Presidential Forum exhibit, a videotaped simulated press conference in which the visitors choose the subject area and questions that Nixon answers. Many selected questions about Nixon’s views on other Presidents, perhaps because it was Presidents’ Day, he said.

Don Adams of Santa Ana, an ardent Nixon fan, said that Presidents’ Day happened to be a good day to visit the library and birthplace, but that there was too much to see in just one day. “We’re going to come back,” he said as he stood outside the simple white wooden house where Nixon was born.

Adams said he plans to spend more time in the Watergate room, although the exhibit about the scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation did not lower Adams’ opinion of the former President: “I think he was one of the best Presidents, one of the greatest.”

Not everybody at the library Monday had planned the visit to coincide with the holiday, however. Cecil and Lucille Barton of Lakewood traveled to the library by bus with a city-sponsored tour group. “I don’t know if it was planned because of Presidents’ Day,” Cecil Barton, 79, said.

“We bought our tickets some time ago,” his wife said.