The Reagans are most closely associated with the state of California — but the former first lady was actually born here in the city. Queens Borough Reporter Ruschell Boone has more on Nancy Reagan's earliest years.

Long before she called the White House home, before her marriage to Ronald Reagan, before her career as a Hollywood actress — Nancy Reagan lived in a modest, two-story home in Flushing, Queens

"Wow," said one neighbor. "I didn't even know it. I'm 25 years here at this location and I didn't realize."

There are no markers or signs, and a day after her death, there were no flowers or candles — just a trickle of visitors who stopped to gaze at the house at 149-40 Roosevelt Avenue.

"I was just passing by and I thought that I would take a photo," said one.

Nancy Reagan lived in the house for the first two years of her life, beginning in 1921.

She was Anne Frances Robbins then; the name Nancy would come later. This street had a different name too, Amity Street.

It was renamed in 1922 for President Theodore Roosevelt. It's part of a largely immigrant community now, and many on the block had no idea Monday about it's link to political royalty.

But one longtime resident did — Jimmy Charalambous, a barber in the neighborhood for 54 years.

"She was a good lady," Charalambous said. "Beautiful lady."

The home's connection to Nancy Reagan was detailed in Kitty Kelly's 1991 biography of the former first lady. Nancy Reagan's death put a new spotlight on the home's past.

One of the visitors Monday — a woman who says she volunteered in one of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns and served as a White House intern under President George H.W. Bush. 

"I was always a big fan of Nancy Reagan and her red dresses, and you know the Reagans and their economic policies so I just had no idea she was born right here," she said.

The home, empty for years,  is now owned by a couple in Auburndale, Queens, records show. The owners could not be reached for comment Monday.

When a NY1 reporter came by, a man appeared to be sleeping on the porch, in a box. "I'm a guard for the house," he claimed.

Nancy Reagan moved away in 1923, eventually to Chicago and college in Massachusetts, then on to California and, of course, to Washington, where she spent eight years in the White House — a remarkable journey that began in a small house in Flushing so many years ago.