Independence challenged to do more for historic preservation

By Jeff Fox
jeff.fox@examiner.net

Harry Truman was not only the Man from Independence but he was the man shaped by Independence, yet how much of that community needs to be preserved to fully tell his story?
“And that’s an important concept to think of,” said Jon E. Taylor, author of “A President, a Church, and Trails West: Competing Histories in Independence, Missouri.”
Taylor, a history professor at the University of Central Missouri, led a discussion of that and related issues Friday at a Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation conference. The group met this week in Independence, visiting area sites and holding seminars Thursday and Friday at the Truman Memorial Building just west of the Square.
Leaving the White House in January 1953, Truman came home to an unexpectedly warm welcome and soon was back in the thick of things, including his daily walk
“And I think he truly enjoyed that,” Taylor said. “It was a way for him to connect with people.”
The neighborhood included the homes of Truman’s relatives, teachers and political pals, all of whom influenced him. Recognizing that Truman’s story is about more than preserving, say, the Truman Home at 219 N. Delaware St., the federal government in 1971 created a national historic district – the first of its kind – in that neighborhood, Taylor said. The city followed in 1974 with a heritage district to preserve the area’s character, but in later years bloody political battles at City Hall whittled it down, leaving no protection for many of what Taylor and others called important sites.
“When that happened, historic preservation really took a hit,” said Brian Snyder, who lives near the historic district and who served on the Historic Preservation Commission.
“The point is that whatever happens, there are consequences,” Taylor said, adding that Independence has passed up the chance to keep telling some of those Truman-related stories.
That’s important, he said, because people will appreciate Truman’s story if there are tangible parts of it they can relate to. It’s akin to the bi-state tax passed years ago to fix up Union Station in Kansas City, Taylor said. People supported the tax because they could remember having used the station at one time or another and they have a connection to it.
Local attorney and business owner Ken McClain countered that ultimately, however, Union Station hasn’t succeeded because although the building has been fixed up, there’s nothing significant to draw people there.
McClain, who has put his money into more than a dozen businesses on the Square, said there’s been a lot of progress in the last several years but that the key is to preserve buildings while finding good uses for them.
“They must be living, breathing buildings that people live and work in,” he said.
More than a decade ago, McClain put $1.2 million into restoring the old Katz building to become what is now Ophelia’s restaurant on the Square, an illustration he used to explain that old structures have to have something profitable going on to keep up with costs.
There are other questions. In Truman’s day, there were power lines everywhere. Now they’re considered unsightly, and they fall during ice storms, so the city is trying to get them buried in various places around town. Should that happen in the Truman neighborhood? Should the old style of sidewalks be kept, even if maintaining them is a hassle?
“These issues are not easy, and they’re not free,” McClain said. “... It takes a community’s commitment and a community’s willingness to commit resources in a way that Independence has not done.”
Although some things have been preserved, others that are historically significant continue to slip away. Snyder pointed to the 2007 closing of the Independence Regional Health Center – built and for decades run by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a key historic player in the community. He also mentioned the Sunshine Center, the old Palmer building and the genealogy center that’s been moved from near the Truman Library to south Independence.
“These are institutions that we want to keep in this part of town, and they’re leaving,” Snyder said.
Losing each, he said, affects the character of the area.
“The bottom line is the historic district downgrade needs to be adjusted,” Snyder said.