For six weeks before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald rented a small space in this quaint Dallas home. While living there, he secured a job at the Texas School Book Depository about two miles away, the same location where the assassination would occur.
During those six weeks, Oswald spent weekdays in this boarding house under the name “O.H. Lee,” renting a small bedroom from homeowner Gladys Johnson for $8 a week. Before this, Oswald lived in another home in the nearby Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, where an infamous photo of him holding a rifle in his backyard was captured. During weekends and on the night before the assassination, he lived with his wife in an Irving townhome, now the Ruth Paine Home.
On November 22, 1963, immediately following Kennedy’s assassination, Oswald returned to this home to grab a few belongings and leave before being arrested at the nearby Texas Theater. He left multiple other personal items at the house, which are still displayed and preserved in the home.
As the subject of multiple conspiracies, Johnson’s granddaughter, Patricia Hall, restored and maintained the home for tourists and skeptics alike. Today, she hosts tours of the living space by appointment and gives her accounts of living with Oswald while he rented a room in the home.