Thursday, January 17, 2013

Reagan's birthplace: Dutch Diner closes in Tampico, Illinois

Dutch Diner, February 6, 2011
The rotten economy has forced another business to close--the R&B Dutch Diner in Tampico, Illinois. The small Whiteside County town--population 800--was where Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911. Reagan's birthplace is about one-hundred yards away from the shuttered diner.

According to Edmund Morris, the author of the flawed Reagan Dutch biography, the restaurant was not named for Reagan, whose boyhood nickname was 'Dutch,' "but for a group of Mennonite women who bake its excellent pies." Unlike myself, Morris actually ate there--he accompanied Reagan and the former first lady when they visited Tampico for the last time in 1992.

The Dutch Diner has closed before, its last owners reopened it in 2009 and invested $60,000 into the venture.

This is a tough blow for Tampico--the Dutch Diner was the only restaurant in the town.

Every February 6 the Tampico Historical Society celebrates our 40th president at his birthplace. I was there on the Reagan Centennial.

The Bureau County Republican and WQAD-TV--with video--have more on the closing.

In other Reagan news, I am part of the effort to save the Chicago home where the Reagan family moved to after leaving Tampico in 1915. To learn more--see the related posts.

Reagan birthplace
Related Tampico Reagan posts:
Related Chicago Reagan posts:
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