About the Museum
Story by Nick Stout
After nine years of working, dreaming, and planning by community volunteers, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum of San Marcos opened on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006. Candace Call and Luci Baines Johnson were the keynote speakers of the opening.
Efforts to make the museum happen were born from discussions which took place in the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Tourism Development. After enough funds were raised to renovate the building in 2006, the Museum was on the fast track. These funds were raised both through the public and private sectors, and there is a special wall display in the museum commemorating the generosity of those involved.
On Feb. 22, 1998, Hays County commissioners approved an arrangement where the museum board could lease a county-owned abandoned movie theater on the courthouse square for 30 years for an annual nominal fee. The board would raise funds to renovate the building under this agreement. The building was in a state of disrepair at the time, but had great potential.
Ngoc Nguyen, a local architect who volunteered to make preliminary sketches, was hired by the board to produce a final renovation plan.
First the interior was demolished and the asbestos found inside was removed.Craftsmen from Gary Job Corps Training Center , which is part of a national job training program created by LBJ ,and first announced in San Marcos, initially cleared the interior of the building to prepare for construction. Next was a structural renovation of the building and finishing work on the first floor. The second floor is still unfinished, but hopefully will someday serve as an auditorium, exhibit/archives workspace, and library.
This museum resides on 131 N. Guadalupe Street in the court house square in downtown San Marcos, and is open to the public on Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
