George W. Bush Childhood Home in Midland Could Soon Be a National Park

Midland could soon become the home of a new national park.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the National Park Service discussed plans to make the George W. Bush Childhood Home at 1412 W. Ohio in Midland a national park in a virtual meeting on Tuesday (January 26, 2021).

The home was lived in by two future presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, and a future first lady, Barbara Pierce Bush, from November 1951-November 1955.

Mike Conaway, former U.S. Representative, requested the National Park Service to do a reconnaissance survey of the home back in 2012 and it was determined then that it could be considered as a new part of the National Park Service.

In 2019, a special resource study of the home was conducted by the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to determine if the area is eligible to become a national park.

For the Bush home to be eligible, it must be nationally significant, suitable, and feasible as a national park and require management directly from the National Park Service.

The special resource study is scheduled to be completed in about a year from now and the final report will be submitted to the Secretary of the Interior and Congress by the end of 2022.

“When the study is fully approved and submitted and the secretary transmits it to Congress, it’s in Congress’ hands. “There are many cases where nothing happens because Congress just chooses not to take Congressional action through legislation. At that point, there is no timeline. There’s no deadline,” said Carrie Miller, Project Manager for the National Park Service Denver Service Center.

The Bush home would be the second home of a former president to be declared a national park since Lyndon B. Johnson's ranch, where he is buried, was designated as a national park in 1980.

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