DRIVING TOUR OF PRESIDENT BUSH HOMES IN ODESSA AND MIDLAND

      In 1948, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, with their young son "Georgie" (George Walker-Born July 6, 1946) moved from New Haven, Connecticut, to Odessa, Texas.

      George H.W. entered the booming oil field as a trainee at IDECO (International Derrick and Equipment Company). Here he painted, maintained equipment inventory, and swept floors. The young family lived in three Odessa homes before moving to California in April 1949. Later that same year, they returned to West Texas and resided in Midland for the next ten years.

      The family first occupied a house at 405 E. Maple located along "Easter Egg Row" (named for the pastel colors used on this line of post-war houses). They moved in 1952 to 1412 West Ohio where they lived until 1956. This is the home President-elect Bush referred to as his "childhood home" during his stop in Midland en route to his 2001 Presidential Inauguration.

      The Bushes moved, again, in 1957 to 2703 Sentinel Drive and lived there for one year.When George W. was 12 years old, his father relocated his oil company headquarters and his family to Houston.

      In 1968, George W. Bush became a Yale graduate. In June 1975, he earned his Business degree from Harvard. Bush moved to Midland and became involved in the oil business, as his father had done more than twenty-five years earlier. After residing in two apartments from 1975 to 1977, George became the first owner of a patio home at 1405 West
Golf Course Road.

      1977 proved to offer several consequential life-changing junctures for the junior Bush. He first entered the political arena in July by announcing he was running for the soon-to-be vacant seat in the 19th U.S. Congressional District.

      In November of 1977, George W. Bush and Laura Welch were married in the chapel of the First United Methodist Church, 305 N. Baird, in Midland. Bush was unsuccessful in his 1978 campaign against Kent Hance for the congressional seat.

      George's introductory work as an oilfield Landman was the basis for his decision to begin to trade mineral and royalty rights and form his own company, Arbusto (Spanish for Bush) Energy, in 1978. Eventually, the company expanded its operations to become Bush Exploration. After several difficult years of trying to conceive, in 1981 Laura gave birth to twin girls, Barbara and Jenna, named after their grandmothers.

      George merged with Spectrum 7 in 1982 and would later buy the Texas Rangers baseball team with his new partners.

      Before the family moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to be closer to his baseball team, the Bushes resided at 910 Harvard, from 1985 to 1986.

      Two of the three Odessa homes have been razed (1319 East 7th - now the location of State National Bank, and 1523 East 7th- now a vacant lot). Their third West Texas residence (916 East 17th St.) now stands as a modest representation of 1940s postwar construction, adjacent to The Presidential Museum at 4919 East University. The Presidential Museum purchased the house in the fall of 2001 and has moved the 17th Street house to neighbor the Museum on UTPB property.

      About the same time that the Odessa Bush House was purchased, negotiations were begun by the Geraldine T. Box Foundation to gift the 1405 West Golf Course Road house to the Museum. This house is to be opened as an education center.