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All the United States Ohio Delaware The Rutherford B. Hayes Birthplace Gas Station

The Rutherford B. Hayes Birthplace Gas Station

A gas station has taken the place of the home of the 19th American President.

Delaware, Ohio

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Bryan Woerner
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Site of our 19th President’s home and our 1st Presidential gas station   OZinOH on Flickr
The plaque where the Hayes home once stood   OZinOH on Flickr
Hayes’ Delaware Ohio home as it once stood   Wikipedia
Engraving of Hayes hanging in nearby Delaware County offices at 145 N Union St.   cmariepeterson / Atlas Obscura User
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Next to the Upper Cut Barber Shop in downtown Delaware, Ohio stands a gas station with a note, in the form of a plaque, to presidential sojourners: THIS TABLET MARKS THE BIRTHPLACE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, NINETEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Now home to a BP gas station, this presidential site on East William Street hosts a plaque put up by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1926 – the same year the Hayes home came down.

Ohio has the distinction of being the birthplace of eight presidents including Hayes (it is tied with Virginia for the moniker “Mother of Presidents”). Having served three terms as governor of Ohio, Hayes was a one-term president who had the thankless task of following Ulysses S. Grant while trying to unite a post-Civil War country. He wasn’t exactly swept into office in a popularity landslide – in fact, he lost the popular vote. But he won the Electoral College (by only one vote), and was sworn into office in 1877.

Hayes was a devoted family man, married to Lucy Webb Hayes and the father of seven children. Mr. & Mrs. Hayes were staunch teetotalers, and whether it was the legacy of Grant or the country’s growing temperance movement, the Hayes managed to get alcohol entirely banned from the White House. And while it’s easy to discount his time in office as bland and unremarkable compared to other presidencies, he served the office with honesty and distinction, transforming the process of civil service appointments by replacing political patronage with a system of merit. That meant you actually had to be able to DO the job you were appointed to. Crazy, right?

So celebrate Rutherford B. Hayes by filling up your gas tank. And while you’re driving, think of him as maybe our first “social media president” – after all, he was the first to own a typewriter, and the first to have a telephone in the White House. And if he’s the first to get his own gas station, that would seal it for the distinguished gentleman from Ohio.  

Update as of October 2023: A sculpture of Hayes was added to the memorial and it was moved to the corner of Sandusky St and Williams St.

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Memorials Presidents Politics Plague Shops

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Located in front of the BP gas station on E William St., downtown Delaware, Ohio

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Added By

bryanwoerner

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cmariepeterson, jmpeters67

  • cmariepeterson
  • jmpeters67

Published

November 20, 2015

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes
  • https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/rutherfordbhayes
  • http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/5862
  • http://millercenter.org/blog/hayes-inaugural-agenda-for-civil-service-reform
  • http://www.presidentsusa.net/hayesbirthplace.html
  • http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wpfh2g/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-pump-and-circumstance
  • https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191003/statue-of-rutherford-b-hayes-overlooks-birthplace
The Rutherford B. Hayes Birthplace Gas Station
17 East William Street
Delaware, Ohio, 43015
United States
40.299058, -83.066952
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