Brown-Dorsey House

The house outlasted Midland's postwar swings. The local economy slumped between 1960 and 1970 as Permian Basin companies struggled against foreign oil, and the city's population slipped from 62,625 to 59,463. Downtown had been losing business since the 1950s to new suburban shopping malls, and civic leaders drew up plans to revive it. In 1968 a federal judge ordered the desegregation of the area's junior and senior high schools; formerly all-Black schools were closed and students were bused across town. Midland College began classes in 1969.

What the plaque says

Brown-Dorsey House Z. Taylor and Sara Brown moved their family to Midland in 1884. A rancher and merchant, Brown had this house built in 1899. Featuring carved wood details, an art glass window, and three fireplaces connected to a single chimney, the house is believed to be the oldest dwelling in Midland. Following the deaths of Sara Brown in 1922 and Z. Taylor in 1930, the house was inherited by their daughter Sara Brown Dorsey. It remained in the family until 1969. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bush Family Home State Historic Site — 1.1 mi
  The small 1939 frame house on West Ohio Avenue where George and Barbara Bush raised their young family in Midland's 1950s oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site.
• Museum of the Southwest — 1.3 mi
  Midland's art and science museum in the 1937 house of oilman Fred Turner and his wife Juliette, with added galleries, a children's museum and a planetarium on the grounds.
• Permian Basin Petroleum Museum — 2.0 mi
  Midland's museum of the oil basin it sits on, from a restored diorama of the Permian reef to a 40-acre yard of drilling rigs and Jim Hall's Chaparral race cars.
• Midland Army Air Field Museum — 9.2 mi
  A hangar museum at Midland's airport, run by Commemorative Air Force volunteers, telling how a 1927 grass field became the bombardier college that graduated 6,627 officers in World War II.

More markers nearby

• John Valentine Pliska — steps away
• Staked Plains — steps away
• Former Site of Midland National Bank — steps away
• Site of Midland County's First Bank — steps away