Bakersfield was home to two future presidents simultaneously, but did Abernathy really need to buy it?

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – On this Monday President’s Day, an annual celebration of the nation’s past chief executives, it’s always interesting to note that Bakersfield is one of only two cities in America, not counting Washington, D.C., where two future presidents lived at the same time.

We’re referring of course to 2101 Monterey St., where in 1949 a young salesman named George Herbert Walker Bush lived with his wife Barbara and their toddler son George W. The elder Bush was 26 years old and working for a subsidiary of Dresser Industries, an oil supply business later bought by Halliburton, and he was selling oilfield supplies out of the trunk of his Studebaker. The family lived in the house for only three months.

In 2000, as the nation prepared to choose between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, Bakersfield political consultant Mark Abernathy purchased the home. But he forgot to tell his wife Cathy, who then worked for Congressman Bill Thomas, and she was irate when she found out. The couple had just purchased a large home and she was justifiably concerned about finances.

Fast forward a few months, and Cathy Abernathy is at the White House with Congressman Thomas, who has just been selected chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – and she’s still angry about the house in East Baskersfield.

“While we’re sitting there, I start feeling someone massaging the back of my shoulders,” Abernathy said. “And I turn and look, and it’s George W. Bush.

“He says, ‘You know, I used to live in Bakersfield.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I know, I own your house.’ So all of a sudden, that house was just wonderful in my opinion, and I take great pride in it.”

Abernathy would still like to turn the 967 square foot home into a learning center, which was her late husband’s plan all along. But those plans are still on hold. Turning it into a museum or some other useful purpose would probably require moving it, and that would be an expensive undertaking.

The home of John Quincy Adams is still standing and preserved as part of the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Mass. The house is directly next to the birth home of his father, John Adams, both of which are still preserved.

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