Five U.S. Presidents resided in the Los Angeles area prior to becoming president (or, in one case, returned after serving in office).
Note: Some of the original structures at addresses cited below have either been demolished or are now private residences under new owners. Please respect the privacy of current residents.
Richard Nixon, official White House photograph, 1971.
Lived in Whittier (1922-1947), Brentwood (1961-1962) and Beverly Hills (1962-1963)
After their Yorba Linda ranch failed in1922, Nixon’s parents moved their family to 1926 S. Painter Avenue in Whittier, then later to 15806 Whittier Boulevard (now adjacent to the current location of Whittwood Town Center). Richard Nixon went on to finish high school at Whittier High School and later attend Whittier College, from where he graduated in 1934. After graduating from law school at Duke University in 1937, he returned to Whittier to practice law in the former Bank of America building at 13002 Philadelphia Street. After several years of wooing Pat Ryan (a USC graduate and Whittier High School teacher), the couple married in 1940 and set up home in Whittier in a small apartment above a car garage. With the exception of his tour in the U.S. Navy during World War II, the Nixons continued to reside in Whittier. Although the Nixons moved to Washington D.C. in 1947 after he won a seat in congress, they maintained a home at 13221 E. Walnut Street and, later, at 14033 Honeysuckle Lane in Whittier.
When Nixon became Vice President in 1953, their Whittier home address was at 1S257 Anaconda Street. In 1961, upon leaving office as Vice President of the United States (1953-1961) and after being defeated in the 1960 presidential election, Nixon and his family moved into a rented home at 901 N. Bundy Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, while awaiting construction of a new home in Trousdale Estates . There, he wrote much of his memoir My Six Crises. The Nixons later moved into the new home at 410 Martin Lane in Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills. There they lived until moving to New York City in 1963, following his defeat in the 1962 election for California governor.
Richard and Pat Nixon with daughter Tricia, 1946. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
Ronald Reagan, official White House photograph, 1981.
Lived in Hollywood (1937-1952), Westwood (1952), Pacific Palisades (1952-1981) and Bel Air (1989-2004)
Reagan first moved to Los Angeles in 1937 at 6650 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, after being winning an acting contract with Warner Brothers Studios. Except for military service (1942-1944) and two terms as Governor of California (1967-1975) and President of the United States (1981-1989), he lived at other locations in Hollywood (1128 Cory Avenue, 1326B Londonderry View and at 9137 Cordell Drive, where he lived with first wife Jane Wyman), in Westwood (941½ Hilgard Avenue, where he first lived with second wife Nancy Davis), and Pacific Palisades (1258 Amalfi Drive and 1669 San Onofre Drive). The Reagans left Los Angeles in 1981 after he was elected to be President of the United States. When Reagan left office in 1989, he and Nancy returned to Los Angeles. Here, at 668 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, Reagan continued to live until his death in 2004.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan after their wedding, cutting cake at the Toluca Lake home of William Holden, 1952. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
George H.W. Bush (1989) and George W. Bush (2003), official White House photographs.
Lived in Compton (1949-1950)
George H.W. Bush was on a long-term temporary sales assignment to Southern California from 1949 to 1950, selling oil drilling bits for subsidiaries of Dresser Industries. He and his family (including 4-year-old son, George W. Bush, future 43rd President of the United States, lived at 624 S. Santa Fe Avenue in Compton. While in Compton, his late daughter, Pauline Robinson Bush, was born.
Barbara and George H.W. Bush with first-born, George W. Bush, 1947, in New Haven, Connecticutt, prior to moving to Compton. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
Barack Obama, official White House photograph, 2009.
Lived in Eagle Rock (1979-1980) and Pasadena (1980-1981)
Obama attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, from 1979 through 1981. He attended Occidental because he received a scholarship from there and, according to his memoir Dreams From My Father, “I’d met a girl from Brentwood while she was vacationing in Hawaii.” It was at Occidental, on February 18, 1981, that Obama gave his first political speech, as part of an effort to persuade college trustees to divest college investments in South Africa. For his first year at Occidental, Obama lived on campus in the dormitory Haines Hall Annex. In his second year, he moved into an apartment at 253 East Glenarm Street in Pasadena. He left Occidental and Los Angeles when he transferred to Columbia University in New York City.
President Obama greets patrons at Canter's Delicatessen in Los Angeles, 2014. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.
In 1899, the future President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, married Louise "Lou" Henry, who he had met at Stanford University when studying there (she was a rare female geology major). Earlier, between 1887 and 1892, during her teens, the future First Lady had lived with her family in Whittier and in Los Angeles. Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School in Whittier is named in her honor.
First Lady Louise "Lou" Henry Hoover, circa 1928.
