William Howard Taft National Historic Site
National Historic Site · Ohio · National Park Service
- 1 named trails
William Howard Taft National Historic Site preserves the two-story Greek Revival house atop one of Cincinnati's prominent hilltops where William Howard Taft was born and grew up. The National Park Service manages the site, which sits at 2038 Auburn Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio. The agency describes hard work, a good education, and an interest in civic duty as attributes that made the Taft family outstanding leaders, and the site's exhibits highlight the environment that shaped Taft's character and philosophy.
The park's topics center on Taft's birthplace and the presidency, and visitors can take guided tours, watch a park film, join the Junior Ranger Program, and browse a bookstore and park store. This makes it a stop suited to travelers interested in presidential history and Cincinnati's civic past rather than a natural landscape destination.
Plan your visit
Trails
1 named routes 26.6 mi of walkable ways mapped within 2 km
- 0.88 The Friends Bracelet Paths: Path of Man & Path of Nature
Know before you go
- Phone
- (605) 836-3421
- Official site
- www.nps.gov
- Managed by
- National Park Service
Getting there
On the ground
The centerpiece is the Taft Family Home, a yellow brick house with a lower-level side entrance and a main entrance on the front, where rooms display portraits of William Howard Taft and Alphonso Taft alongside period furnishings such as the crib used by Taft as a baby. One case holds the bible used for Taft's presidential swearing-in in 1909 and again in 1921 when he was sworn in as Supreme Court Chief Justice. A brick walkway connects the home to the Taft Education Center, the park's main visitor center, where interpretive display columns, shadowbox cases on the Taft legacy, and an animatronic figure of Charlie Taft fill the main exhibit hall.
Outside, the Friends Bracelet Paths, made up of the Path of Man and Path of Nature, cover 0.88 miles on the grounds. Additional walkways mapped near the park amount to 26.6 miles of ways, mostly paved surfaces such as concrete and paving stones connecting the site to the surrounding neighborhood.
Photos
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NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg -
NPS / Tom Engberg
Practical notes
The park grounds are open 9 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. The Taft Education Center, the park's main visitor center, follows standard hours of 9:00AM - 4:00PM on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and is closed Monday through Wednesday. Visitors arriving from I-71 north take Exit 2 at Reading Road and Eden Park Drive, then follow Dorchester Avenue and Auburn Avenue to the site; from I-71 south, Exit 3 at Taft Road leads to Auburn Avenue and the park. The site lies in a humid continental climate zone, with mildly cold winters averaging around 48 degrees (F) and hot, humid summers averaging around 77 degrees (F). Average annual rainfall is just under 40 inches, and winter snowfall is generally light, averaging less than 12 inches.
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Browse all Ohio parks →Sources: National Park Service, OpenStreetMap contributors, Google Places · updated 2026-08-12