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

5/14/15 - Kansas State Capitol

We had just visited the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, and the Kansas State Capitol building wasn't too far away.

This time the GPS got us where it was supposed to. We parked on the east side, and had to walk around to another side to the public entrance. I love these big old grandiose buildings meant to impress. (I usually am.)

Of course, we'd just missed an Historic Tour--and they were doing some work on the dome so we couldn't do that. This Capitol building is supposedly the only one in the country where you can walk around the outside of the dome. I can't tell what they're doing up there, but it better be more than just washing windows! George didn't want to go up anyway.

They pretty much let you wander around the halls. I wanted to see the murals and the dome. These hallways look really old. (Building was built in 1903, so I guess it is.) It looks like it could have been a castle. 

This is a smaller version of the Eisenhower statue we saw in Abilene--more detail here than on the big one, or maybe there's just no sun glare. 

There's an old cage elevator from 1923 that I would have loved to ride in.

I liked the stairs too.

The murals are pretty impressive, including the famous one about Abolitionist John Brown by John Steuart Curry.  (I'm sure many of the others are famous too, but maybe you have be from Kansas to know.) Apparently there was a lot of controversy about the Curry murals, and he didn't get to finish all he'd planned on doing. So...he didn't sign them. So there!

 

The murals and the dome were what I really wanted to see here. I stood in the rotunda and looked straight up. And, yes, I was impressed.

More pictures of the capitol building here:  Kansas State Capitol Building

5/14/15 - Brown v. Board of Education NHS

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is the only national park named after a U.S. Supreme Court Case. It's in an old grade school and is harder to find than I expected. I didn't bother to plug in the address, but found the name in our GPS. We drove into Topeka and ended up at the Old Post Office. I ran inside and got directions. They know where everything is at the Post Office!


Turns out there was a valid reason the GPS got it wrong--the Supreme Court case was tried in the summer of 1951 in the courtroom of the Old Federal Building.  The Old Federal Building later became the Post Office--but now it's the Old Post Office because Topeka's built both a new Federal Building and a new Post Office. (BTW, the Old Post Office which used to be the Old Federal Building is for sale.  Do you see a pattern here? Or maybe an upcoming identify crisis? Even more confusion for the GPS?)  

Back in the truck, we drove to the Old Monroe Elementary School which now houses the Visitor Center. It's so nice to know that it's not just MY sense of direction that's fallible. (Ha! Stupid GPS!)  

Monroe was one of four segregated elementary schools for African American kids in Topeka. The state law said that schools could be "separate but equal".

The ranger there is really nice and answered all my questions. I don't think they get a lot of visitors.There's a movie. Actually, 5 movies in 5 minute segments that just play over and over in the old gym. 

There's either too much information or not enough space at this park. Several of the classrooms have been opened up, and displays put in to explain the history of Civil Rights. One side of the building has focuses on Education and Justice; the other side on the Legacy of the decision.

Five separate lawsuits about desegregation of schools were combined and argued in front of the US Supreme Court. Together they became known as Brown v. Board of Education. The landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954 brought an end to racial segregation in America's schools. Eventually...

There are timelines that show events going back 500 years, displays that show in pictures and video events as they happened, with some interactive bits scattered along the way.

Some of this stuff I remember from the news. Much of it was new to me. It's interesting to see things that were current events while I was growing up that have now become history considered so important they made a National Historic Site out of it.

They've recently set up a 1954 kindergarten room--representative of a classroom of that time, with a few modern twists. I've never seen one with a fireplace before! 

Administration offices are upstairs. Still looks like a school, doesn't it?

There are a few more pictures here:  Brown v Board of Ed