Take a grand tour of Lyndon B. Johnson's historic offices in Central Texas

On May 14, the American-Statesman gave readers an exclusive peek inside a scrupulously preserved office suite used by President Lyndon Baines Johnson during and after his time in office. It is hidden inside the J.J. Pickle Federal Building in downtown Austin.

Makes one wonder: What about all the other official offices that Johnson commandeered in Central Texas during and after his long service in the federal government, which lasted from 1935 to 1969?

Not to leave you hanging, but, with the help of various archivists and managers of historic buildings, I have identified six offices and two current exhibits — one about the Texas White House, the other about the Oval Office — within driving distance of each other.

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Next time you are in in the Austin area — or if you live in Central Texas already — take this LBJ office tour. Some interiors are not open to the public right now, but almost to make up for it, there's a new exhibit at the LBJ National Historical Park headquarters in Johnson City that focuses on the president's Texas White House office.

I've rated the LBJ offices and office-exhibits on how hard it is to gain access — easiest, easy, hard, hardest.

Littlefield Building

Littlefield Building, 601 Congress Ave. (Hard) Starting in 1935, LBJ worked in one of the city's first "skyscrapers" as the head of the Texas Division of the National Youth Administration. The New Deal federal agency ran several programs for out-of-school youths, including a campaign to build roadside parks across the state. The first one was constructed along Texas 71 between Smithville and La Grange. It's still there.

The Johnson's NYA staff started off occupying a three-office suite in the Littlefield Building that grew to five and then six offices. My maternal grandmother, Val M. Keating, served as Texas Relief Commissioner in the same building and, according to documents and an oral history housed at the LBJ Presidential Library, she informally mentored the young LBJ. She also received more than one of his excessively flattering letters, the kind detailed in Robert Caro's "The Years of Lyndon Johnson."

(By the way, if you have not seen "Turn Every Page," the superb new documentary about Caro and his longtime editor, Robert Gottlieb, it's available to rent on Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming platforms.)

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Johnson's "boys" — mostly recent fellow graduates from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos, now known as Texas State University — mustered up a lot of energy and activity in their NYA suite, but they came with scant background in public works. My grandmother helped tutor them on data, paperwork and "managing up."

Meanwhile, LBJ's boys evolved into his core political team when he ran for U.S. Congress two years later.

I have not yet tracked down the NYA floor in the Littlefield, but you know I'll keep looking for those offices and will visit them. (It took 13 years got get inside the suite in the Pickle Building!)

Driskill Hotel

Driskill Hotel, 604 Brazos St. (Easy) This grand old hotel, built in 1886, made a perfect spot for Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson to oversee their various businesses, buttonhole cronies, and enjoy the comforts of its hospitality.

In 1934, LBJ met his future wife, Claudia Taylor, for their first date at the Driskill dining room. He later used the handy hotel as the headquarters for his congressional and senatorial campaigns.

For years, the family's radio station occupied the hotel's ground-floor space right at the corner of Sixth and Brazos streets.

A renovation of the Driskill's LBJ Suite, which includes portraits of the Johnsons in the main bedroom, stained-glass bluebonnets in the bathroom, and original fireplaces at each end of the parlor, was completed in 2021.

Old Federal Courthouse

Old Federal Courthouse, 200 W. Eighth St. (Hard) This splendid Depression-era structure, completed in 1936 with Art Deco and Art Moderne touches, housed LBJ's Austin offices starting in 1937.

He kept an outpost here while he served in the House of Representatives (1937-1948) and in the U.S. Senate (1948-1961), as well as during his tenure as vice-president (1961-1963).

His first offices were located on the southwest corner of the second floor. He later moved to Suite 109.

The building's primary tenant at the time was the Austin Division of the District Court for the Western District of Texas. Gorgeously restored, it now hosts the Travis County probate courts and other county offices. Meanwhile, federal judicial officials moved to a new building at 501 W. Fifth St. in 2012.

Usually, one must have business in the old courthouse to visit all its magnificent spaces, but occasional tours have been made available, including one given by Preservation Austin in 2022.

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The Honorable Guy Herman gave two American-Statesman journalists a thorough look around the place in 2017.

Texas White House

Texas White House, Stonewall. (Two venues: Hard and Easy) Even though the LBJ Ranch was meant to be a retreat from the stresses of Washington, D.C., the ranch house contains a substantial set of offices walled in knotty wood paneling.

LBJ, however, used the whole ranch for meetings of one kind or another. He met with advisors in the Texas White House living room, or with the media and White House cabinet under the Cabinet Oak outside. In 2019, a large branch fell from the Cabinet Oak. The Friends of the LBJ National Historical Park, a nonprofit, recently auctioned off 50 pieces of art made from that branch, with proceeds going to fund the renovations of the ranch house.

The ongoing structural and environmental improvements mean the interiors of the ranch house are not open to the public these days, hence the my "Hard" rating. I did tour it a few years ago during the brief period that the first floor was open to the public.

A temporary exhibit about LBJ's office, however recently opened in the visitors center at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, 100 Ladybird Lane in Johnson City. Despite the hourlong drive from Central Austin, I'd rate the access to this museum "Easy."

Pickle Federal Building

Pickle Federal Building, 300 E. Eighth St. (Hardest) This was the office suite discussed in the May 14 article. Here's an excerpt from that story:

"Except for wear and tear, a mod downtown Austin office suite used by President Lyndon Baines Johnson for meals, social encounters and critical meetings, sometimes of global significance, looks remarkably like it did more than 50 years ago.

"Very few people, however, have ever seen it.

"In fact, even his close relatives, such as granddaughter Catherine Robb, and top presidential scholars like Mark Lawrence of the LBJ Presidential Library and Mark Updegrove of the LBJ Foundation — all three live in Austin — had not been able to peek inside until recently. Not many will ever get to see it in person.

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"From the evidence of historical photographs, building records and eyewitness accounts, the suite looks unchanged since when LBJ — who died 50 years ago on Jan. 22, 1973 — held critical meetings here from 1965 to 1971."

Currently the General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, is restoring the furniture, decor and finishes in the LBJ suite. They expect to conclude the project by the end of 2023. Yet because of security concerns — a high federal officeholder shares the floor with the LBJ suite that two American-Statesman journalists toured earlier this year — it will not be open for regular public tours in the future.

The GSA, however, is making a before-and-after video so that the public can view this miraculously preserved space. It will be streamed.

LBJ Presidential Library

LBJ Presidential Library, University of Texas campus. (Two venues: Hard and Easiest) From 1971 until his death in 1973, LBJ kept a private suite inside the library that was later used by Lady Bird Johnson.

Now the rooms are shown to dignitaries and are employed for salon-style dinner parties. One room includes a large window with a spectacular view of downtown, which, at Lady Bird's request, UT has tried not to spoil during its expansions of Royal Memorial Stadium.

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Right next door — and very much open to the public — is a replica of the Oval Office from the time of Johnson's presidency. First impression: It's smaller than the visitor might imagine, because it duplicates the White House original at a 7/8 scale.

Of course, it houses one of LBJ's famous three-screen television sets so he could watch all three network news channels at the same time. Imagine how many screens he would need today for such dizzying news saturation.

Michael Barnes writes about the people, places, culture and history of Austin and Texas. He can be reached at mbarnes@gannett.com. Sign up for the free weekly digital newsletter, Think, Texas, at statesman.com/newsletters, or at the newsletter page of your local USA Today Network paper.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Tour President LBJ's Austin, Central Texas historic offices