Harry S. Truman National Historic Site

The Harry S. Truman National Historic Site (officially styled without the period after the S) preserves the longtime home of Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president of the United States, as well as other properties associated with him in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. The centerpieces of the site, which is operated by the National Park Service, are the Truman Home in Independence and the Truman Farm Home in Grandview, although it also includes the Noland home of Truman's cousins and the George and Frank Wallace homes of Bess Truman's brothers. The site was designated a National Historic Site on May 23, 1983.Truman Home in IndependenceThe Truman Home, 219 North Delaware Street, Independence, Missouri, was the home of Harry S. Truman from the time of his marriage to Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919, until his death on December 26, 1972. Bess Truman's maternal grandfather, George Porterfield Gates, built the house over a period of years from 1867 to 1885.After Bess's father, David Willock Wallace, committed suicide in 1903, she and her mother and brothers moved into the house with Bess's grandparents, George and Elizabeth Gates. At the time Harry and Bess married in 1919, Harry was putting all of his money into his business partnership, a men's clothing store called Truman & Jacobson at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, so living at the Wallace home made good financial sense.