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Truman lived here from 1890 to 1896, when he was six to 12 years old. Click the home (1) for more information. |
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Truman lived here from 1890 to 1896, when he was six to 12 years old. Click the home (1) for more information. |
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Truman lived here from 1896 to 1902, when he was 12-18 years old. Click the house (2) for more information. |
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Truman lived here for about six months in 1902 and 1903. Click the house (3) for more information. |
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This lot belonged to the Wallace family beginning in 1867. Harry Truman and Bess Wallace moved into this house following their marriage on June 28, 1919. Harry lived there until his death in 1972, and Bess lived there until her death in 1982. Click the house (4) for more information. |
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Truman attended the Noland school at 527 South Liberty Street for first and second grades, from 1892 to January 1894. Click the school (5) for more information about schools Truman attended in Independence. |
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Truman spent at least part of four different grades at the Columbian School at 320 South River Boulevard. Click the school (6) for more information on the schools Truman attended in Independence. |
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Truman attended the Ott School, which sat on the southwest corner of Liberty Street and College Avenue, for most of fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Click the school (7) for more information about the schools Truman attended in Independence. |
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Truman graduated from Independence High School, on the northwest corner of Pleasant Street and Maple Avenue, in 1901. Bess Wallace was also in his graduating class. Click the school (8) for more information about schools Truman attended in Independence. |
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This Library was located in the Ott School from 1894 to 1898 and in Independence High School for 1898 to 1908. Click either school (7,8) for more information. |
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Starting in 1900 this was the home of Truman's aunt, uncle, and cousins, the Nolands. Bess Wallace's house at 219 North Delaware was across the street. Click the house (10) for more information. |
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Bess Wallace lived here from 1887 to 1903, when she was 2 to 18 years old. The house no longer exists, but the burr oak tree that Bess and her friends used to play under still stands. Click the house (12) for more information. |
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The Harpie Club, at 101 North Main Street, was formed in about 1924 by Truman's friends apparently simply because they liked him and wanted to formalize to some degree their poker games together. Click the club (13) for more information. |
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Streets
of Independence Truman began taking walks when he became a Senator in 1935. They usually began at 7 a.m., and he took various routes. Along the way he stopped to talk to people and to sign autographs. Click the number (14) for more information. |
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Truman oversaw the dedication of the Memorial Building, at 416 West Maple Avenue, on July 4, 1926. This was Harry and Bess Truman's regular voting place. Click the building (15) for more information. |
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Truman often had his hair cut at George Miller's barbershop, beginning in the 1950s. Doris Miller, who operated the Crown Beauty Shop at the same address, 214 North Main Street, fixed Bess Truman's hair. Click the barbershop (16) for more information. |
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Truman often had his hair cut at George Miller's barbershop, beginning in the 1950s. Doris Miller, who operated the Crown Beauty Shop at the same address, fixed Bess Truman's hair. In 1965, the Millers moved their business to a shop in front of their house at 417 West Maple Avenue. Click the barbershop (17) for more information. |
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Truman worked at Clinton's Drugstore, 100 West Maple Avenue, for a few months when he was 14 years old. At the end of his first week on the job, Truman received three silver dollars. "It was the biggest thing that happened to me" he recalled. Click the drugstore (18) for more information. |
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The Rural Jackson County Democratic Club, the eastern Jackson County branch of Tom Pendergast's Jackson Democratic Club, apparently met from time to time at both 111 1/2 and 211 West Lexington Street. Truman's headquarters during his 1922 campaign for eastern Jackson County judge were at 111 1/2 West Lexington Street. He won, and his political career had begun. Click the club (19,20) for more information. |
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In 1922, Truman won election as county judge for eastern Jackson County. He failed to be reelected in 1924, but then won election as presiding judge in 1926. He served in this position, in effect as county commissioner, for eight years. Truman dedicated an enlarged and remodeled Indepedence courthouse September 7, 1933 on Independence Square. Click the courthouse (21,22) for more information. |
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Truman held sessions of the county court here, at 107 West Kansas Street, in 1932-33, while the Independence courthouse was being enlarged and remodeled. Click the log courthouse (23) for more information. |
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In the fall of 1925, Truman and two partners took over Community Savings and Loan in Englewood, about a mile southwest of Independence. In April 1926, Truman became president of the savings and loan and moved it to 204 North Liberty Street. Click the bank (24) for more information. |
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The Truman Library, located at 500 West U.S. Highway 24, was the center of Truman's public life from its dedication on July 6, 1957 until 1966 when ill health confined him largely to his home. Both Harry and Bess Truman are buried in the courtyard of the Truman Library. Click the Library (25) for more information. |
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When the Truman's moved to Independence in 1890 they began attending the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Lexington and Pleasant Streets. Truman and Bess Wallace were in the same Sunday school class there. Click the church (26) for more information. |
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Bess Wallace began attending this church at 409 North Liberty Street sometime between 1901 and 1903. She married Harry Truman at Trinity Episcopal June 28, 1919. Click the church (27) for more information. |
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Truman frequently used this station, located at 600 South Grand Street, during the years he was a U.S. Senator commuting between Washington D.C. and Independence. Click the station (28) for more information. |
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Truman Road Truman lived next to this road and heard its traffic for 53 years. On January 20, 1949, it was named for him. Click the number (29) for more information. |
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Bess Truman's parents and grandparents are buried here. Harry Truman's last trip to Independence as President was to bury his mother-in-law, Madge Gates Wallace, in the Woodlawn Cemetery at 701 South Noland Road. Click the cemetery (30) for more information. |
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The Nolands, Truman's aunt, uncle, and cousins (pictured), lived in this house from 1894 to 1900. Click the house (11) for more information. |
Independence was the big small town in which Harry Truman grew up, went to school, fell in love, launched his political career, centered his private life for most of his life, and, finally, grew old and, after dying in a Kansas City hospital, was buried. By the time Truman died in 1972, Independence had over 100,000 people and spread over almost 50 square miles. The Square was in decline and many of the old neighborhoods has lost their former prominence. There is no evidence that any of this ever bothered Harry Truman. "The Independence that I knew in 1890," Truman wrote a friend in 1950, "long since disappeared in every particular; the Independence I knew in 1928...has also disappeared; and I suppose the one of the present day will be a thing of the past in another twenty years and that is as it should be."
Independence High School
