The mausoleum-like library is a congressional version of a presidential library, built to honor Bonham resident Samuel T. “Sam” Rayburn, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for forty-eight years and as speaker for seventeen nonconsecutive terms. The classical building’s small scale is magnified by its formal siting elevated on a vast tree-framed lawn and by its gleaming white Georgia marble exterior and pedimented portico of four Ionic columns.
In 1916, three years after beginning his congressional career, Rayburn built a house 1.5 miles west of the library at 890 TX 56. It was modified to its present, plantation-like appearance in 1934 by architect W. B. Yarborough, who converted the original first- and second-story porches into a grand porch of Tuscan columns. The house museum contains all the original family furnishings, including Rayburn’s 1947 Cadillac.