I joked as I wrote More Presidential County Sorting that nobody will ever name a county for disgraced former U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon who resigned in 1974 in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. That led me to wonder, well, had anyone ever named anything for him? Maybe I was being overly harsh? Actually I learned that if someone would like to undertake one of the loneliest search engine queries in history, try variations on “named for [after, in honor of] Richard [M] Nixon.” I found precious few results.
![Ollie Atkins, chief White House photographer at the time. See ARC record. [Public domain]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis-nixon.jpg)
The pickings were so slim that I had a difficult time finding photos to illustrate the article so I decided to use this iconic image of Richard Nixon meeting Elvis Presley in 1970. Enjoy that for a little while as I attempt to unspool the very small set of actual confirmed places named for Tricky Dick.
Yorba Linda, California
I began with the obvious.
Yes, naturally a Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum existed (map). And of course, that bore the Richard Nixon name. Obviously that was true by definition so I’m not even sure it should count. It sits in Yorba Linda, California, the town where Hannah Milhous Nixon birthed a son in 1913.
Nixon established his presidential library on land adjacent to his childhood home, a prominent feature of the museum complex. There also used to be a Richard Nixon elementary school nearby although it closed in 1988 due to declining enrollment.
Nixon had the distinction of being the president who died farthest from his birthplace (as proven by 12MC — a great circle distance of 2,436 miles / 3,920 kilometers). He made up for that by being buried on the grounds of his library within feet of his birthplace.
In addition, a stretch of Imperial Highway through Yorba Linda became The Richard M. Nixon Parkway.
It didn’t surprise Twelve Mile Circle to see a few Nixon tributes scattered about his home town. What about other places though?
Elsewhere In the United States
Loyal 12MC reader Calgully noted that in Australia they don’t name things for living people just in case they become embarrassments later. Those were wise words indeed, a fact that others should have considered before referencing Nixon.
Plenty of features carried the Nixon name although usually for different Nixons. It wasn’t an entirely uncommon surname. Most of them made it clear that they were NOT named for Richard Nixon. However I found two elementary schools definitely named for Richard Nixon, both bestowed before he became a national disgrace. The school district in Hiawatha, Iowa opened Richard M. Nixon Elementary School in 1970. The adjacent park had the same name. Another Nixon Elementary School arose in Roxbury Township in Landing, New Jersey (map). Nowhere on its website did it mention that it was named for that Nixon although clearly it was. I’d try to ignore or deny it too.
Other than that I saw a reference to a “President Richard Nixon’s Iowa Ancestor Historical Marker” listed in the Geographic Names Information System. It was located in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery, Indianola, Iowa (map). I also found a few minor streets. That was it.
Internationally
International tributes were even more scarce. I found a mention of Richard M. Nixon High School, in Monrovia, Liberia in the Autobiography of John Wulu, Sr.
“I wrote him a letter. In my letter I stated, ‘Mr. President, to you defeat means success. You were defeated two times for the office of the President, you did not allow that to deter or discourage you… My entire family and I have strong admiration for you… I decided to rename my school in your honor and call it Richard M. Nixon Institute. The school is located in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, West Africa.’ President Nixon replied to my letter through the American Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, and said it was okay for me to name my school in his honor.”
The school still existed as recently as February 2015. It appeared at that time in a BBC article, “Ebola outbreak: Liberia schools reopen after six months.”
There also used to be a Nixon Library in Hong Kong according to the U.S. National Archives. Nixon visited Hong Kong while he was Vice Presidential in 1953.
“The First Nixon Library — Except for its name, there was little remarkable about the modest library that stood in the neighborhood of Yuen Long on the outskirts of Hong Kong from 1954 until 1977. It held only a few thousand books and employed just one librarian, and its patrons were mostly schoolchildren, farmers, and shopkeepers. Nevertheless, the humble building was a monument to Richard Nixon.”
Nixon passed through Hong Kong several times after his initial visit, and even toured the library in person in 1966. He may not have been there to see the library though. There were rumors that he was having an affair.
In Popular Culture
I discovered an entire list of pop culture references to Nixon. My favorite one by far drew inspiration from his middle name, Milhous. The writers of The Simpsons added an “e” to his name to create the character Milhouse (full name Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten).
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