{"id":177,"date":"2013-11-06T22:59:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T22:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/?p=177"},"modified":"2020-10-21T04:14:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T04:14:48","slug":"a-presidential-park-independence-mo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/2013\/11\/06\/a-presidential-park-independence-mo\/","title":{"rendered":"A Presidential Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Harry S. Truman National Historic Site<\/a>\u00a0in Independence, Mo., offers visitors more than a museum-based look at the former president \u2014 it offers them a chance to experience his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The historic site is run by the National Park Services and contains multiple historic buildings and thousands of artifacts relating to Truman\u2019s life, says Larry Villalva, Harry S. Truman National Historic Site Superintendent.<\/p>\n

He says the sites designated as national historic structures include the Truman home on Delaware Street, the Truman family farm, the Noland home, and bungalows where his wife\u2019s two brothers once lived.<\/p>\n

The most popular destination for visitors to the park is the Truman home at 219 N. Delaware St., Park Chief of Interpretation Mike Ryan says. More than 30,000 people visit the home each year. However, tours are limited to eight people to provide a close environment and to preserve the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything on the tour is original, and the authenticity is key,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cThere are no rope barriers or anything like that. It\u2019s just like you\u2019re walking through the home and the Trumans have stepped out for a few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bess Wallace Truman gave the house she shared with her husband to the U.S. government in her will. Ryan said Bess understood the value a complete and undisturbed house would have for future generations, so she left it to the people.<\/p>\n

During a tour of the house, visitors walk through the first floor common areas. The upstairs rooms are not included to protect the privacy of the family and the condition of the house.\u00a0Guests can see firsthand the original apple-green kitchen with d\u00e9cor from the 1950s, more than 1,000 volumes of books owned by the Trumans and Harry\u2019s signature hat and coat left on the rack where he placed them before his death.<\/p>\n

Anecdotes about the president\u2019s life and family, paired with the original artifacts from his life, allow a guest to create her own mental picture of Harry S. Truman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to sell you anything,\u201d Senior Park Ranger Norton Canfield says. \u201cWe\u2019re here to tell you what happened and you can draw your own conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Truman home expect more than just a museum, Canfield says, explaining Truman touched lives as a president and a man. He says rangers leading the tours try to provide each visitor with the information, setting and atmosphere they hope for during the tour.<\/p>\n

Guests can receive information about all the sites within the park, and buy tickets to tour the home, at the Visitor\u2019s Center on the Independence Square, Ryan says. The center also plays a video about the President\u2019s life, showcases\u00a0artifacts<\/a>, houses a gift shop and offers information about additional services to enhance visitor experiences.<\/p>\n

Truman\u2019s daily walks have inspired some of those services, Ryan says. Three\u00a0cellphone tours<\/a>\u00a0are available that take visitors through areas Truman once walked. The tours guide guests through the neighborhood he lived in with Bess, the grounds of his family farm, his first workplace in the building that now houses Clinton\u2019s Soda Fountain and all around the downtown Independence Square, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny tour that a visitor receives, they will be impressed by how [Truman] was a man of the people,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any better example of that than how he was willing to get out and walk the streets, to meet and greet.\u201d<\/p>\n

During summer 2013, the Park Service conducted a new program out of the Visitor Center to honor Truman\u2019s walks while promoting healthy living and educating the community about the Truman sites and his life, Ryan says. The \u201cIn Step with Harry\u201d program provided tourists and locals with free ranger-led walks to Truman sites every Saturday morning. The walks centered on Independence Square, but each week the rangers highlighted different sites and information about the president.<\/p>\n

The different programs the park offers allow visitors a rare glimpse into the life of a president, Ryan says. The sites show how Truman lived, and the stories told by rangers and in the programs confirm he was truly the people\u2019s president. Ryan says guests should leave the park \u2014 and the city \u2014 feeling like they might have talked to the president himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Harry S. Truman National Historic Site\u00a0in Independence, Mo., offers visitors more than a museum-based look at the former president \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[188,18,33],"tags":[55,54],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destination","category-explore","category-missouri","tag-independence-missouri","tag-presidential-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmn.truman.edu\/detours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}