Harry S Truman

Truman Family Farm

 

The Truman Farm--Days and Hours of Operation

Operating Schedule Details
 

The Truman Farm...Then...and Now.

Large farm house, Harry Truman posing with his mother and grandmother Large farm house, Harry Truman posing with his mother and grandmother

Left image
The Truman Farm Home, with Martha Ellen Truman, Harriet Louisa Young and Harry S Truman posing.
Credit: Truman Library

Right image
The Truman Farm Home today.
Credit: NPS

One day, Harry S Truman posed for a picture with his mother, Martha Ellen Truman, and his grandmother, Harriet Louisa Young. He had no idea that a few decades in the future he would be the most important and powerful person in the world.

It was on his family's farm in Grandview that Harry S Truman learned skills and grew character traits that led him on that path to the White House.

It's a wonderfully American story.

 
The Truman Farm
The Truman farmhouse was built in 1894 and was originally the center of a 600-acre working farm.

NPS Image

The grounds of the Truman Farm in Grandview, Missouri, are open every day of the year, sunrise to sunset. Cell phone tours of the grounds are available. Rangers are at the Farm on Fridays and Saturdays, starting May 5, 2023, until October 21, 2023, to explain to you the significance of the Farm. Tours of the Farm Home are first come, first served.

Twenty-two-year-old Harry Truman gave up his $100 a month bank salary to go work on the family farm in 1906. The farmhouse, with no plumbing or electricity, stood in stark contrast to the bright lights of Kansas City. On the farm, Harry had little privacy, sharing the seven-room house with his grandmother, parents, sister and brother.

Harry slept in a room above the dining area with brother Vivian and the hired hands. The bedroom was like an oven in the summer and an icebox in the winter. "It was an awful task to arise this morning in that ten-degree room," he wrote in 1914.

Harry's day began when his father called from the foot of the stairs. Before the smell of frying bacon filled the house, Harry was up feeding livestock and milking cows. Then, he came in to help Mamma and Mary Jane cook. According to one farm hand, Harry could "stir up as good a batch of biscuits as any woman."

After breakfast, Harry usually put in a long day of physically demanding work. In the evenings, the family gathered in the sitting room to read and talk. In the parlor, Harry, Mary Jane, or Mamma played the piano, while John added his mellow voice to sing-a-longs.

During Harry's eleven years on the farm, he worked hard, planned for the future, and confronted each challenge with calm determination. His demanding father expected Harry to do his best - whether it was planting straight corn rows or stacking hay. After his father's death in 1914, Harry assumed responsibility for the farm's success or failure.

To learn more about the Truman Farm Home, click on the links below to read the site bulletin and take a photo tour of the home's interior.

Plan Your Visit

 

 
Truman farm images
Harry Truman spent 11 years on the farm in Grandview. Today, the farmhouse and surrounding 10 acres is preserved and part of Harry S Truman National Historic Site.

Truman Library/NPS

 
 
 

 
 

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Last updated: August 15, 2023

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Contact Info

Mailing Address:

223 North Main Street (Visitor Center/ Truman Home Ticketing Station)
Independence, MO 64050

Phone:

816-254-9929
The park is open to the public Wednesdays-Sundays. The park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Administrative staff work Monday-Friday. For Administration staff, please call (816) 254-2720, Mondays to Fridays, 8AM-4PM. All times central. (We like to call it Truman Time.)

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