Holley Family Home — 1606 39th Street, Lubbock

At 1606 39th Street in Lubbock, Texas, only a few blocks from the house at 1305 37th Street where Buddy Holly lived in 1957, sits another of the numerous Holley family residences scattered across the city. The Holley family was in the house construction business, and they moved between properties regularly — making it difficult for Holly researchers and pilgrims to track down every address the family occupied over the years.

Buddy Holly — born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7, 1936 — grew up across these Lubbock streets, learning guitar from his older brothers and absorbing the country, gospel, and rhythm and blues that reached West Texas through the radio. By the time he was a teenager, he was performing regularly around town with school friend Bob Montgomery as Buddy and Bob, playing country and western on local radio station KDAV.

The 39th Street house is a private residence in a quiet neighbourhood. Like the other Holley family homes in Lubbock, it carries no official plaque or marker — the city's formal tribute to its most famous son is concentrated at the Buddy Holly Center museum and the Walk of Fame statue on Avenue Q. But for visitors making the drive between Holly's various Lubbock addresses, these unassuming houses on their flat, wide streets are the real texture of the world that shaped him.