by Ever vigilant for presidential sites, we of course went to the Harry S Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri. It’s a small town, but where Truman spent most of his life, including falling in love.
The National Park Service (NPS) visit for this is a bit of a hot mess. First, there is the visitor’s center where you go to get your free tickets and watch a short film, but which has no exhibits. Then, walk or drive a mile away to visit the Truman and Noland homes.
There’s a Historic Walking Trail in town, but it doesn’t start at the visitor’s center and includes some really ridiculous items, with no indication why/how they’re related to Truman. The Truman Courthouse is not part of the NPS, so requires separate (convoluted) reservations through the historical society.
The Presidential Library is also a different location and operator (and a different post!). Not to mention the Truman Family Farm, which is part of the NPS site even though it’s 25 miles away (and wasn’t open for the year yet).
Can you tell I had some frustrations figuring out what to do and where to go?
The star of our visit was the Truman Home, which was actually the family home of Truman’s wife, Bess. It was completed in 1885 by her grandfather. (Fun fact: he was a partner in the Queen of the Pantry flour mill that was part of the Bingham-Waggoner Estate we toured), and she moved there with her brothers and mother in 1904, after her father died.
Harry actually grew up a few blocks away in a home that is now privately owned. However, he had family (the Nolands) who lived directly across the street from Bess, and when a cake dish needed to be returned in 1910, Harry volunteered to do it. He and Bess were already acquainted, but now it blossomed into something more.
However, Harry was in no position to get married, so several years of courtship followed while he got himself situated with better prospects. They did marry in 1919, at which point Harry moved in with Bess, her mother, and her grandmother, with Bess’ brothers living on small homes on the property. Daughter Mary Margaret joined the crew in 1924.
Bess and Harry remained in the home for the rest of their lives. Harry was elected as a judge in the Jackson County Court several times, which was just a few blocks away. He moved on to serve in the US Senate in 1934, before running as Vice President to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.
Roosevelt died just 82 days into his Presidency, resulting in Truman’s surprise ascension to the position of U.S. President. Throughout his two terms (which oversaw the U.S. involvement in WWII), he continued as a resident of Independence, calling their home the “Summer White House.”
After his Presidency, Harry returned to Independence to live as “Mr. Citizen,” taking daily walks and working on establishing his Presidential Library. He died in 1972, with Bess outliving him by ten years.
The Victorian home is about 8,800-square-feet and has 14 rooms. The tour only includes the first floor, and no pictures are allowed (though you can see pictures of the first and second floor on the NPS website, along with a video tour of the first floor). Because Bess left the home directly to the US government, it is almost exactly as the family left it.
A few exhibits are on display across the street in the Noland House about the Trumans. It featured a wonderful video of Margaret interviewing her parents in the home, but I sadly couldn’t find it online.
In addition to driving and walking around town, we did the tour the “Historic Truman Courthouse”, which was not especially interesting (though the unrelated Bingham paintings we got to see were intriguing).
