Description
J. Edgar Hoover Home - Washington, D.C.
J. Edgar Hoover’s home is on 30th Place in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Forest Hills. He moved here in 1939, four years after being made director of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation. From 1924 to 1935 he was the Director of the Bureau of Investigation and when that organization reformed in 1935 as the FBI, Hoover was appointed its first head. During his years with the bureau he was credited with modernizing the department, enlarging its man power, and promoting new advances, such as forensics. He also became a powerful man, building up such a vast library of secret information that he was able to fend off presidents. Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy both felt Hoover should be fired, but were afraid to do so because of the political backfire that would occur. In later years he came to odds with subversive groups, blacks, gays and communists, and has been charged in more recent years of having misused his power and manipulated people and events for his own ends. Lyndon Johnson waved the retirement age for Hoover and he was able to serve in his post indefinitely. Fate, however, had other ideas, and on May 2, 1972, Hoover died here in his longtime home of a heart attack.
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