The Grissom family moved to the home on Baker Street, now Grissom Avenue, in 1926 when Gus was about a year old. Dennis and Cecile lived in the home until their deaths in the mid-1990s. After their deaths, concerned community members raised money to buy the home.

 

Interest in creating a museum in the home waned until 2014 when it was acquired by a new group of volunteers intent on bringing the house back to life to honor the memory of Gus Grissom, who was the second American to fly in space. Gus Grissom and fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in 1967 during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida, when the command module caught fire on the launch pad.

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Volunteers brought the appearance of the home back to the time period when Gus was a child. With period furniture, decorations, pictures and kitchenware, they've turned a simple house into a boyhood home.