Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site, Texas

Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would become the nation’s 34^th president, was born in 1890 in the front downstairs bedroom of this house in Denison, Texas, near the border of Oklahoma. His father worked for the railroad, which ran right by the house, and rented this home for his wife and two sons. When Eisenhower was two they moved to Kansas, and for 50 years no notice was made of the house’s historical significance. Until World War Two, when Eisenhower became a famous general, few people seem to have known or cared where he was born, even himself. A former school teacher from Denison who remembered bouncing him on her knee when he was a baby wrote to Eisenhower to officially confirm his birthplace, and he said he couldn’t remember, but that she should ask his mother. His mother confirmed that he was indeed born in Denison. That was enough to begin a local initiative to identify, secure, and preserve his birthplace. After World War Two, a group of local residents formed the Eisenhower Birthplace Foundation, and purchased the house and five acres. In 1946, Eisenhower came to Denison for the first time since his infancy, and was met by the school teacher and nearly 40,000 others. After he became president, more money was raised, the house was further restored, most of the other houses on the property were removed, and it became the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site. It is now owned by the Texas Historical Commission, and has a small visitor center. A large statue of him was added in 1972. An even larger statue of Eisenhower appeared on the highway at the edge of town recently. The 21 foot-tall head was unveiled in 2011 by David Adickes, next to the highway, as part of a veteran’s memorial. Adickes, a sculptor based in Houston, has made dozens of large white presidential heads which can be found here and there, usually in groups, all over the nation.