Yorba Linda OKs $10-Million Expansion of Nixon Library

Yorba Linda officials approved plans Wednesday night for a $10-million expansion that will nearly double the size of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

The privately funded, 47,300-square-foot expansion will include a replica of the White House East Room, site of the wedding reception of Nixon’s daughter Patricia, one of the few times during his administration that he hit the dance floor.

The Yorba Linda Planning Commission approved the plan in a 5-0 vote, giving the go-ahead to a summer groundbreaking on the yearlong project.

The expansion will make the building the fifth largest presidential library in the country. Although the library will also add an exhibit hall, catering facilities, administrative offices and an entrance pavilion, the East Room replica--with detail down to the Steinway piano--will be the project’s highlight.

“For our visitors, seeing the East Room will be an ‘Aha’ moment,” said John Taylor, executive director of the Nixon Foundation. “It will help bring alive for people a part of the White House that they might have seen only on television.”

The East Room, considered the White House “public audience room,” has long hosted famous performers, including pianist Van Cliburn, jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie and violinist Isaac Stern.

In Yorba Linda, the East Room will also be offered up for weddings, bar mitzvahs and Boy Scout ceremonies--the types of activities that, according to Taylor, already account for 10% of the library’s $4.7-million annual budget.

The library is Yorba Linda’s biggest draw, with about 147,000 visitors last year.

“It’s truly an asset to this community,” said Donald Winn Jr., executive director of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce. “It helps to keep the restaurants a little busier and our local hotel a little busier.”

The Nixon library is the only privately owned and operated presidential library. The other 10 libraries, with an 11th planned for Bill Clinton, are run by the National Archives, which house the presidential papers.

Nixon’s papers are not at the library, despite a lengthy legal custody battle with the federal government. Even so, Taylor said, the library contains an extensive collection of Nixon history and memorabilia.