HOPE -- A group working to conserve the early childhood home of former President Bill Clinton wants to make Hope a destination location.
The National Park Service created a plan for potential development that would add a new visitors center to the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site and to change the layout of the grounds.
The site centers around the Cassidy House, a home at 117 S. Hervey St., the residence of Clinton's grandparents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy from 1938-56.
Clinton lived there from his birth in 1946 until 1950, when his mother remarried and moved across town.
The site's current visitors center is located in a home around the corner at 415 W. Division St.
The birthplace home was originally opened to the public in 1997 by the William Jefferson Clinton Home Organization Inc. It was acquired by the National Park Service in 2009.
Now the site, which is funded and operated by the National Park Service, is looking to expand.
Laura Miller, the site's superintendent, said the National Park Service conducted studies to figure out how the site can be improved for visitors and to make the site more historically accurate.
The plan calls for a new visitors center of approximately 3,400 to 3,900 square feet built on the existing 1-acre property.
About 60 to 70 people visit the birthplace home each day in the summer, said Park Ranger Brady Wright. He said July is the busiest month, with the number of visitors reaching up to 100 on some days.
Miller said having a new visitors center would allow the site to better accommodate guests and offer more educational programs.
"It will provide more classroom space, more space for school groups to come," she said.
The birthplace home site partners with other organizations, such as the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, to educate the public about Clinton's roots.
Miller said having more space would make it possible to host more of those programs on the historic site.
"Where we are is the perfect place to talk about growing up in the environment that he did and how that informed the man that he became," Miller said.
"We also talk about what it's like for a kid today growing up in a small town, and how we all have a responsibility to our community to make the world better."
The new center would sit at South Hervey and West Division streets, between the Cassidy House and the current visitors center.
That area is currently the location of the Virginia Clinton Kelley Memorial Garden, which honors the former president's mother. The memorial garden will be moved to behind the Cassidy House if the plan is implemented.
The current visitors center would be used as office space, allowing the center to hire more employees, Miller said.
Some of the other proposed changes would make the Cassidy House more accurate to the time period in which Clinton lived there.
"For example, we know from looking at family photos there was a screened-in front porch," Miller said.
The National Park Service took public input on the project through June 30.
"Most of the comments that we got were more informal from folks, like 'that sounds great, go for it,'" she said. "Barring any strenuous objections that's what we'll go with."
Once the plan is finalized, the changes will be implemented as funding allows.
"We would start right away requesting funding and things like that, but it would probably take a few years to get anything in place," Miller said.
She said some of the more urgent renovations, such as plans to make the site more accessible to visitors who are handicapped, will probably take place within the next fiscal year.
Metro on 07/06/2014