Grandview (Missouri) Chamber of Commerce Records

The Records of the Grandview (Missouri) Chamber of Commerce consist of correspondence, printed materials, and other items concerning efforts to preserve the Truman farm home in Grandview.

Size: 2.5 linear inches (about 400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2022).

During the late 1970s, the Chamber of Commerce of Grandview, Missouri, was significantly involved in efforts to preserve a small portion of the farmland once owned by Harry S. Truman and his family. The Truman family sold most of their farmland in the Grandview area to a developer in the 1950s, but they retained ownership of the farmhouse and the small segment of land on which it stood. A few years after Mr. Truman’s death in 1972, members of the Grandview Chamber of Commerce began lobbying federal, state, and local officials in support of preserving this property as an historic site. They argued that Truman’s formative years on the farm as a child and as a young man were important in shaping his character and values, and they suggested that prompt action to save the property was necessary to prevent developers from acquiring the land and demolishing the house. The Chamber was also involved in efforts to acquire the property from Mr. Truman’s nephews and arrange financing for the renovation of the house. The Truman farm home was added to the National Register of Historic Sites in 1978, and subsequently came into the possession of the National Park Service as part of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site.

The Records of the Grandview (Missouri) Chamber of Commerce consist of correspondence, printed materials, and other items concerning the Truman farm home in Grandview and the Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to have this property preserved as an historic site. The collection contains correspondence between representatives of the Chamber of Commerce (including Robert L. Johnson, Vincent C. Harrison, and Beverley H. Bunce); the White House and other federal agencies; members of Congress (including Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, Sen. John Danforth, Rep. Morris Udall, and Rep. Richard Bolling); Missouri Governor Joseph Teasdale; and various state and local officials. The collection also includes newspaper articles and other printed materials relating to the Truman family and the preservation of historic sites, as well as the application forms that were filed in support of including the Truman property in the National Register of Historic Sites.

The records were originally opened for research as part of the Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection (MHDC 328).