Another Presidential Home

Independence, Missouri, is the home of Harry S. Truman. Therefore, Sherry and I got the chance to check off our second presidential home of the summer.

There was a disappointment here: visiting the Truman Library and Museum wasn’t possible. Apparently they had closed the week before we arrived for renovations. The presidential libraries aren’t usually as special to me as the house, though I was in the mood to see this library. Few administrations had as many crises to address as his did. And he served as president during such an uncertain and tense time.

By the way, the Library and Museum is administered by a different organization than the home, which is a National Park Service site. Beginning with Herbert Hoover, our presidents’ libraries took on more archival importance and legislation basically granted money for their interpretation and preservation. Usually presidents fund-raise to create an accompanying museum to help frame the story of their presidency. 

Truman's home as seen from the sidewalk. 

The house, though, was worth the trip. By the standards of Independence, Missouri, it’s large. By the standards of most other presidents’ homes we visited, it’s really quite modest. And that’s what Truman wanted. He married into the home, so to speak. It was built by Bess’s grandfather and enlarged by her father. It sits along the corner of a side street and what was then a main thoroughfare. Privacy was a real challenge for the Trumans in retirement and they didn’t have Secret Service protection until after the Kennedy assassination. They allowed for vegetation to grow to shield themselves somewhat. And the Secret Service did eventually erect a fence to keep people from stealing artifacts from the property such as flowers. 

Note the way the Trumans used trees and plants to make the house somewhat secluded. 

The home reflected the man quite well and helped me know more about him. He tried to return to it a lot during his presidency and often resented how he was recalled to D.C. when crises emerged. (By the way, he received the phone call about North Korea’s invasion of the south in that home.) When he did finally get to return to it in his retirement, he kept it modest. According the guide, hardly any of the political and diplomatic visitors were allowed beyond the formal living room where they received guests politely. The kitchen was equipped as virtually any other midcentury kitchen would be equipped. Wallpaper was still worn away from where the former president had repeatedly turned on and off the lamp above the breakfast table.

In his garage was the final car he purchased, a 1972 Chrysler Newport. Common car? Well, it was certainly large. But I was surprised it wasn’t a Cadillac or Lincoln. In fact, it was the same make and model of my grandparents’ car from that era.

The house points to a quote Truman was fond of saying, that (I’ll paraphrase) one should never forgot where he came from, who he was, and where he would return. The home did a great job honoring that calling he had as a leader.

Sherry and I pose for our second presidential home explored this summer.