LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON BIRTHPLACE, BOYHOOD HOME, AND RANCH. The birthplace home of Lyndon Baines Johnsonqv is adjacent to the LBJ Ranch near Ranch Road 1 and Stonewall, Texas. The home was constructed in the 1880s by Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr.,qv the president's grandfather, and it was there that the president's father, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr.,qv brought his bride, Rebekah Baines Johnson,qv in 1907. Lyndon was born in the home on August 27, 1908; the Johnsons lived there until 1913, when they moved to Johnson City. The family sold the house in 1923, and though it was demolished after much deterioration, some of the original materials were used in the construction of a smaller house on the same site in 1935. The Johnson City Foundation acquired the building in 1964 and reconstructed it to its 1907 size and appearance. The home is now open to the public, having been refurnished with authentic pieces and family mementos.
Johnson's boyhood home in Johnson City was built in 1886 and, though modest, reflects the Victorian style of the period. After the family moved there in 1913, the house remained the official residence of Lyndon Johnson until he married Claudia Alta Taylor in 1934; his first political speech in his race for Congress in 1937 was made on the east porch of the house. The home was dedicated as a museum by Judge Homer Thornberry on May 13, 1965, and like the birthplace contains authentic period items and family furnishings. It is also open to the public.
The LBJ Ranch is in the heart of the Hill Countryqv on the banks of the Pedernales River, and in the early 1990s was still the home of Lady Bird Johnson. The history of the ranch goes back to the time of the Republic of Texas,qv when a young widow from Georgia, Rachael Means, was granted a tract that included the present property. In 1872 the land was sold by the Means family, and the property changed hands several times until about 1894, when a one-room stone house was constructed by a German family named Meyer; the small house became the nucleus of the present home. In 1909 the property was purchased by Clarence White Martin,qv a relative of the Johnsons, and in 1951 Senator and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson acquired the property, which then consisted of 438 acres. See also LYNDON B. JOHNSON STATE HISTORICAL PARK and LYNDON B. JOHNSON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
