Lyndon Johnson’s Boyhood Home

After finishing our tour of the Johnson Settlement, we wandered over to the boyhood home, across the street from the visitor center. A sign on the door said tours were every 30 minutes. My sister relaxed in the porch swing while I wandered about the yard taking photos.

The front view with the parlor window in the center.

When the ranger showed up, we had our own personal tour. The house was originally built in 1901. Johnson’s family moved there in 1913, when Lyndon was five years old. It was the family home for the next 24 years. The house was white with green trim, but the ceiling on the porches was a bright light blue. Apparently, wasps and other creatures mistake the blue for open sky and don’t build their mud nests there. Later in the day, we saw another porch on the ranch that was painted green, and there were nests everywhere.

The house was lived in by other people after the Johnsons moved out, and was altered. The Park Service has restored it as close as possible to its 1920’s appearance. Most of the furniture isn’t original, but what is there looks very much like what the Johnsons had. The ranger told us that Lyndon visited after it had been restored and almost cried, it looked so much like it once had. For a while when we were inside, my flash wasn’t working. Sorry about the quality of some of these photos.

It’s larger inside than it looks from the outside. There are seven major rooms plus a smaller room containing a bathtub (but no toilet). There are also four porches including a screened-in sleeping porch. The frill along the peak of the roof is just decoration. The ranger knew his stuff and was willing to answer our questions.

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