US Secret Service Command Post

A historic USSS emblem marks the entrance to the Command Post

NPS Photo / Jack Burton

Quick Facts

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

This historic cottage was originally constructed on the south side of the Pedernales River where today the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park exists. It was used by the Beckmann family in the 1940s for about a decade. After it was abandoned and unoccupied, the family sold the house to Lyndon Johnson, and it was moved to its current location in the late 1950s.

Initially, the cottage was used for employees of the LBJ Ranch. Although the US Secret Service had a presence on the ranch beginning with Johnson's vice presidency in 1961, the agency did not have permanent quarters. Initially, agents assigned to the ranch had posts in the Klein Shop or even in their automobiles.

At some point early in the Kennedy-Johnson administration, a trailer was placed on the property northeast of the main house. After Johnson became president in November 1963, Secret Service continued to use the trailer until around 1966, at which point the agency began to use the old Beckmann cottage. It served as a security post as well as office space for Johnson's protection detail.