Lyndon Johnson spent most of ten years living in this home, a decade that profoundly affected the future president's view of the world. The neat landscape in front bears little resemblance to the backyard he knew in his youth, when it included almost everything needed to sustain a family: an orchard, vegetable garden, woodpile, windmill, barn, and smokehouse. Hog wire fences kept in chickens and livestock, and laundry scrubbed by hand swayed under the intense hill country sun. Though he always thought fondly of Johnson City, he spent much of his political career trying to lessen for all Americans the hard realities he had known as a youth: no electricity, poor medical care, inadequate education, and prejudice.