The Sam Rayburn House is located on about on the south side of Texas Highway 56, on the western outskirts of Bonham. The property includes the main house, a storage building, shed, garage, wellhouse, and barn. The main house is a -story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Its main facade is protected by a shed-roof portico with two-story Tuscan columns, and there are three gabled dormers projecting from the roof. The facade is three bays wide, with a center entrance framed by sidelight and transom windows, topped by a projecting cornice. Rayburn was one of the most influential Congressmen of the first half of the 20th century, serving for 17 years as the
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was an important force in maintaining harmony between the northern and southern wings of the
Democratic Party, and served as a mentor to future president
Lyndon B. Johnson. Of three residences known to be associated with Rayburn, this one is the best preserved and most evocative of his life. ==Gallery==