5/17/15 - Harry S. Truman NHS

Harry S Truman National Historic Site is in Independence, MO. This site is to commemorate Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the US.

First you go to the Visitor Center to get tickets to tour the house the Trumans lived in.  (Ours were free with our senior passes.) We had time to watch what they call an "orientation film"--what I usually call a video or movie. I guess that works too.

We thought we'd come back later to see the jail next door, but we forgot...

We drove the 5 blocks to the house, and waited for the tour guide to come meet us. No pictures allowed inside. This is the house where his childhood sweetheart Bess Wallace lived with her mother, and where Harry and Bess lived (with her mother) after they were married. We got to tour the downstairs of the 14-room Victorian built in 1867. We learned some interesting things about the families--cousins, brothers, parents--and how Harry and Bess got together because of a cake plate.

No pictures. What a pain!  Not sure why--sometimes they don't like you taking photographs with flash inside museums, but mostly I don't use the flash anyway. (I don't always think about it, and most of the time my camera does okay without it.) My other guess is it's because taking pictures slows down the tours.

There were 5 other people on the tour with us, and after it was over they left and we chatted a little more with the volunteer. He also does tours at the Presidential Library across town, but said they needed volunteers here more than the Library does! Nice man. Really knows a lot about the Trumans.

We couldn't take pictures inside the house President and Mrs. Truman lived in, but we could go across the street into the Noland house where Harry's cousins lived--and where he was visiting when he first met Bess. (This is where the cake plate came in.)  It's not really furnished, but there are some copies of photographs and paintings, and some displays. (I just go to national parks; I don't make the rules.)

 

We couldn't go upstairs here either.

There's a big old tree out front that's scattered petals all over. I asked our guide about them, but he'd never noticed.  George figured out which tree had blossoms and I took pictures. The flowers are really pretty and has a nice fragrance, but they're really high up in the tree. I'd seen one somewhere else, but couldn't remember what it was called. I googled it to learn it's called a Tulip Tree and is related to the magnolia.

More pictures here:  Harry S Truman NHS