By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

LAMAR, Mo. — “We’re just desperate here,” Lamar City Administrator Lynn Calton said in welcoming a proposal by U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., to consider Harry Truman’s birthplace for inclusion in the national park system.

Earlier this week, Skelton introduced legislation directing the U.S. secretary of the interior to conduct a study to determine the suitability and feasibility of making the home a part of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site or designating it as a separate unit of the national park system. Skelton’s measure has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.

The national historic site in Independence and Grandview includes the home where Truman, the 33rd president, lived from 1919 until his death, and the Truman Farm, where he worked from 1906 until 1917.

According to a statement issued by Skelton’s office, the study could take up to three years. If the result is affirmative, Congress could consider legislation to add the birthplace to the national park system.

The Lamar home where Truman was born in a downstairs bedroom on May 8, 1884, remains in the control of the state of Missouri.

The United Auto Workers donated the home to the state nearly 50 years ago for preservation as a state historic site. Truman attended the dedication on April 19, 1959. The house also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Calton, the city administrator, said the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which oversees state parks and historic sites, drafted a master plan for the site. The city is a partner in that plan, Calton said.

Since the development of that plan, Lamar has spent thousands on infrastructure for the site, moving power lines, building a storm sewer, and adding curbs and guttering. The city also acquired several nearby properties when they came up for sale and removed structures on them.

It all is part of a larger vision for the site that includes making room for buses and tour vehicles, and re-creating the Franklin school as a site for exhibits, offices, a gift shop and media room.

The plan also calls for rebuilding a mule barn.

“His (Truman’s) dad was a mule trader, so catty-corner from the birthplace we were going to re-create the mule barn,” Calton said.

While the city has been reimbursed for its acquisitions, Calton said he remains frustrated with the state’s pace.

“They just haven’t done much,” he said of the DNR.

Saying the historic home has been treated like a stepchild, Calton added: “We can’t get them (DNR) to turn loose any money. We asked that they would consider creating a national park so they could get this project done while I’m still alive.”

Dawn Fredrickson, planning section chief with the Missouri Division of State Parks, said the conceptual development plan began in 1997 and was completed in 2002.

Since then, eight properties have been acquired, three by city efforts and five by the state.

But the land-acquisition budget and capital-improvement budget are separate, and it’s the latter that is needed now.

“Both of those concepts (the school and mule barn) are on the long-range capital-improvement budget,” Fredrickson said, but neither a current cost or timeline has been identified.

In 1998, during the development of the plan, the cost of the two buildings was put at $1.1 million.

There are 500 other capital-improvement projects on the state list for the 83 parks and historic sites that are part of the state system.

“We get about $3 million every two years,” Fredrickson said of the capital-improvement budget.

She said the state also replaced windows, the wood shingle roofs, smokehouse, outhouse and well house at the birthplace, and constructed a disabled-accessible walkway with old bricks “that would be sensitive to the historic look of the birthplace.”

“We don’t care if it’s the state or the feds. We just want to get something done,” Calton added. “Everybody seems to forget that, hey, this is where he was born. And he’s our only president (from Missouri).”

Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor for The Joplin Globe.





Open to visitors



“The Truman birthplace, which the family occupied until Harry was 11 months old, was built between 1880 and 1882. The Trumans purchased the 20- by 28-foot house as newlyweds in 1882 for $685. Visitors today can view its four downstairs rooms and two upstairs rooms, as well as the smokehouse, well and outhouse located in the back.

“The modest furnishings inside the house and the surrounding landscaping accurately represent a typical home of its style during the time the Trumans lived in Lamar. It has neither electricity nor indoor plumbing.”

Source: Harry S Truman Birthplace State Historic Site