Fred and Juliette Turner built their house in 1936 and 1937 on twelve lots on West Missouri Avenue, in a Midland that was just learning what Permian oil could do for a town. Architect Anton F. Korn designed it with Uno Tuomi, and at about 5,300 square feet, with close to a dozen fireplaces and a long run of ornamental detail, it was a show of new money done with care. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Fred and Juliette Turner House.
The Museum of the Southwest opened in 1966 and took the house as its home. The architect Frank Welch added to it in 1970, and a gallery wing followed in 1986. The art hangs through the old rooms and the new galleries alike: prints, paintings and drawings, with changing exhibitions drawn from Texas and American art. The museum also keeps the 1959 Kentucky Derby trophy.
The grounds hold more than the house. The Fredda Turner Durham Children's Museum and the Blakemore Planetarium, one of the few public planetariums in West Texas, are part of the complex, so a visit can run from an oil family's drawing room to the night sky in an afternoon.
The closest stops worth working into your route