The boyhood home of Harry Truman in the photo above located at 619 S. Crysler was recognized this summer by officials from the City of Independence. Unfortunately, the officials were from the Health Department and the recognition was for problems with weeds and trash/rubbish/garbage in violation of Property Maintenance Codes. Truman spent his impressionable boyhood years from age 6 to age 12 at this home. From this family residence, he enters the Independence Public Schools, he attends First Presbyterian Church Sunday School where he meets Bess Wallace, and he recalls his father’s celebration after the 1892 election of Grover Cleveland. In this rare Democratic Party victory celebration, his father decorates the weathervane mounted on top of the cupola of the home (the cupola has since been removed), which undoubtedly left an impression on young Harry. Other Truman residences in the city and the state are National Historic Sites, State Parks, and/or are marked with interpretive signs. This one (on the other side of the railroad tracks and approxmiately 1/2 mile from the Truman NHL Distrct) is one city officials would prefer you drive by without noticing. At Truman’s birthplace home in Lamar, Missouri, he only spent 11 months there and today it is a State Historic Site and House Museum and represents a source of pride for this rural community. We do learn from the Crysler property how absentee landlords maximize rental income while minimizing investment. There are actually 7 mailboxes on this property. Independence has many stories to tell but with this property we get a bonus lesson plan in economics. Anywhere but Independence, this would be national shrine. Here it is considered just another local public nuisance.
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