Now With More Truman!

Plain Spoken, Flame Broiled truman-flame.jpg

Harry Truman’s real estate/memorial empire continues to blossom, despite his death 35 years ago, adding properties he couldn’t possibly remember and some he’d probably just as soon forget.

The House has passed a bill directing the Secretary of the Interior to consider adding the Harry Truman Birthplace truman-birthplace.jpg to the National Park Service. Mr. Feisty spent his formative first eleven months in the home, which has been a state park since 1959 when the United Auto Workers gave it to Missouri. The site closed due to unspecified “hazardous conditions” shortly after the House vote.

The Independence Missouri house Truman lived in before and after his presidency truman-home.JPG was acquired by the Park Service in the 1980s. Since then they have gobbled up two Truman in-law houses around the truman-frank-wallace-house6-01-west-truman-road.jpg truman-george-wallace-house-605-west-truman.jpgcorner, and acquired a neighboring house at 216 North Delaware. truman-joseph-t-noland-house-216-north-delaware.jpg.

The NPS bought into trouble with these homes and two of them are getting new foundations.

The Park Service does own the Truman farm truman-farm.jpg near town where young Harry slaved for his father until World War I saved him, but the “boyhood home” at 909 West Waldo in Independence truman-boyhood-home-909-west-waldo.jpg remains in private hands.

The Truman Historic Site sits in an historic district named for him, and in theory there’s nothing to stop the Park Service from buying them everything in sight.

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