"Despite
designation as a National Historic Landmark, the Harry S Truman Historic
District is rapidly losing its historic character, in part because of
inadequate protection of its historic resources. Within sight of the Truman house, several
historic buildings have been replaced by parking lots and nondescript new
construction. Other threats to the
historic neighborhood include changing regional economic conditions and
demographics, and the contemporary problem of urban blight. Historic homes and buildings are being
demolished or collapsing because of general deterioration and neglect."
The above exert is from a press release and media campaign
from the National Trust for Historic Preservation on June 17th
placing the Truman National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) in the “Top 11”
list of most endangered landmarks in the country. This campaign goes on to cite “insensitive planning policies” and “nondescript new construction” as
problems negatively impacting the NHLD. No,
this “News Flash” announcement didn’t happen today. It was on June 17th, 1996 and,
yes, it’s part of the preservation history of our community. This news release was issued exactly 20 years
ago (10:30 am to be exact) primarily because the local Truman Heritage District
was alarmingly too small to protect the nationally designated Truman NHLD and
its historic setting. Exactly two
decades later, the local district is not only the same small size but we now
have a NHLD that three times the size it was.
So if the local district was too small in 1996, it should be even more distressing
today with a much larger federal district worthy of protection. Urban blight and economic/market pressures
are also a bigger problem. There continues
to be the absence of a local not-for-profit group guiding and advocating
historic preservation in Independence while City Hall has cut the Historic
Preservation budget to one quarter of what it used to be. A strong argument could be raised that
situations today are even worse than in 1996.
But community leaders will not raise that concern since it would be
incompatible with our recent PR campaigns, not to mention our current philosophy
that, if we ignore problems, they will go away.
The hypocrisy in all this was the overwhelming support from City Hall for
the expansion of the NHLD with new plaques, an open house event, and many
photo-ops for politicians while we continue to ignore our national and civic
responsibilities to providing real protections through local zoning and more “sensitive
planning policies.”
