A 1937 oil-baron estate where a 1963 murder occurred in an upstairs bedroom — the room stays closed; the rest is a working fine-arts museum on the National Register.
1705 W Missouri Ave, Midland, TX 79701
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Admission charged for museum galleries; see website for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic mansion with accessible ground-floor galleries; some upper areas limited
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1937 · National Register of Historic Places · Colonial Revival architecture, Permian Basin oil era · Site of 1963 murder of Juliette Turner by James Lee Marion
Fred Turner built his fortune in Midland's oil and gas sector during the Texas Permian Basin boom of the early twentieth century. In 1936, he commissioned an architect to design a Colonial Revival residence at 1705 W Missouri Avenue in one of Midland's established residential districts. The two-story brick mansion was completed in 1937 and became a social anchor in the West Texas oil community.
On November 11, 1963 — eleven days before the Kennedy assassination drew all national attention elsewhere — 66-year-old Juliette Turner was attacked and killed inside her home. James Lee Marion, a young man from the area, broke into the residence and bludgeoned her to death in the upstairs master bedroom. Marion was arrested, tried, and convicted of murder in Midland County; the jury returned a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.
The murder room on the upper floor has remained closed to public access since the mansion became a museum, a fact local media have noted repeatedly when revisiting the property's history. Fred Turner survived his wife and eventually donated the estate. The Museum of the Southwest officially opened in 1966 and has since grown into a three-building campus offering fine arts galleries, a children's museum, and a planetarium.
The mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized for its architectural quality and association with Midland's oil-era development. Today the building serves as the museum's primary gallery and administrative space, with the crime's physical setting preserved — if sealed — within the lived-in fabric of the building.
Sources
The legend surrounding the Museum of the Southwest centers almost entirely on the violence of November 1963 rather than any tradition of spectral lore. The upstairs bedroom where Juliette Turner died has never been opened for public tours, and that closure itself drives most of the paranormal speculation — visitors and staff describe an unease around the upper floor that precedes any knowledge of the murder.
The most specific reported incident involves a wooden rocking chair in one of the public ground-floor galleries. A visitor described the chair moving rhythmically with no one seated in it and no perceptible draft or air source. The account was documented by Midland's Mix 97.9 FM news division, one of the local outlets that has periodically revisited the mansion's dark history. No formal paranormal investigation of the property is known to have been conducted or made public.
The Turner Mansion houses the Museum of the Southwest's fine arts and children's galleries across three connected structures on the campus. The 1936–37 Colonial Revival mansion — built for Fred and Juliette Turner — is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The upstairs bedroom where the 1963 murder of Juliette Turner took place remains closed to the public.
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