The house at 1412 West Ohio Avenue was built in 1939 and has about 1,400 square feet. George and Barbara Bush bought it in the early 1950s; it was only the second house they had owned since their marriage in 1945, and by far the largest. They lived here through the hardest year of their lives, when their daughter Robin died of leukemia in 1953, and their son Neil was born while they lived here. Later the family moved to Houston, and George W. came back to Midland as a young man to start his own oil business.
What makes the place unusual is the count. The Texas Historical Commission notes that, apart from the White House, no other house in the country has been home to so many prominent political figures: two presidents, two governors and a first lady among them.
The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, bought for $100,000 to become a museum, and opened on April 11, 2006, with George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush at the dedication. The Texas Historical Commission took it over in 2023. It is furnished to the early 1950s. George W.'s room holds the things of a Midland boyhood of the time, Cub Scouts, Little League and the Roy Rogers fan club among them, and panels in the kitchen and den set the family in the story of the town. Guided tours run through the day; the last starts at 4:15 p.m.
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