DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most houses on a quiet street in Midland, Texas don't amount to much in the sweep of history. They sit there, modest and sensible, watching the decades roll by.
But this particular house — a Traditional style home built around 1939, showing that graceful shift from Tudor to Ranch detailing — well, this one was quietly stacking up history like nobody's business. It started with a young couple. George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife Barbara — Barbara Pierce before she took the Bush name — came to Texas in 1948.
Two years later, they moved to Midland, and they brought along their son, George Walker Bush. The family bought this house in 1951, and what happened inside those walls over the next few years is the kind of story that would sound made up if you tried to tell it around a campfire. Within those years, they faced the loss of a daughter, Robin.
Let that land for a moment. Grief has a way of marking a place just as surely as any plaque on a wall. But life kept moving, the way it does, and the family also celebrated the birth of two sons while they lived here.
For young George Walker Bush, these were vital years. He attended Sam Houston Elementary. He made the kinds of friends you keep your whole life.
He played baseball. You can almost picture it — a kid on a dusty Midland field, sun hammering down, not a single soul in that town suspecting what that boy would one day become. In 1955 the family moved to a larger home, and eventually on to Houston.
The little house on the street was left behind. But here's the part that separates this particular address from every other address in the state of Texas, maybe in the whole country. Under that one modest roof lived two Presidents — George H.W.
Bush and George W. Bush. Two Governors — George W.
Bush of Texas and Jeb Bush of Florida. And First Lady Barbara Bush. All of them, under that same c. 1939 roof, at one time or another members of one family, in one house, in Midland.
Unique in history, the marker says. And for once, that phrase isn't doing any stretching at all.
What the marker says
George Herbert Walker Bush and wife Barbara (Pierce) came to Texas in 1948, moving to Midland with son George Walker Bush in 1950. They bought this home in 1951 and while here faced the loss of daughter Robin and celebrated the birth of two sons. The years spent here were vital for young George, who attended Sam Houston Elementary, made lifelong friends and played baseball. The family moved to a larger home in 1955 and then to Houston. This c. 1939 Traditional style house reflects transition from Tudor to Ranch detailing. Unique in history, it was home to two Presidents -- George H.W. and George W. Bush; two Governors -- George W. Bush (TX) and Jeb Bush (FL); and First Lady Barbara Bush. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004