The house at 219 North Delaware Street was built between 1867 and 1885 by Bess Truman's maternal grandfather, George Porterfield Gates. After Bess's father, David Willock Wallace, committed suicide in 1903, she and her mother and brothers moved in with the grandparents. When Harry and Bess married on June 28, 1919, Harry was pouring all his money into a men's clothing store called Truman & Jacobson at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. Living at the family home made financial sense. After the haberdashery failed in 1922, the couple stayed to save money while Harry paid his debts. Election to the Senate in 1935 took them to Washington, but 219 North Delaware remained home whenever they returned to Missouri. Their only child, Margaret, was born in the house on February 17, 1924.

After Truman retired in 1953, the house served as his personal office until the Truman Library opened on July 6, 1957. Bess lived in the home until her death in 1982, then bequeathed it to the National Park Service. The ground floor remains much as the Trumans left it. A Steinway piano, originally purchased as a Christmas present for Margaret and later played by Truman in the White House, occupies a prominent spot. The family's extensive personal library includes the mystery novels Bess preferred. Their record collection sits nearby. The official White House portrait of First Lady Bess Truman hangs here -- the one in Washington is actually the copy. Paintings include a panorama of Athens, a 'primitive' of Key West with a backward-looking donkey, and fireplace tiles depicting a fanciful desert landscape with tents and minarets, likely inspired by One Thousand and One Nights.

Bess Truman wrote into her will that the second floor of the house should remain closed to the public until the death of her daughter Margaret, to protect the family's privacy. Margaret died in 2008, but the National Park Service has maintained the closure to best preserve the home. A photo tour of the upstairs rooms, including Harry and Bess's bedroom, is available for visitors who want a glimpse behind the barrier. The site also encompasses the two adjacent homes of Bess's brothers and, across Delaware Street, the Noland Home where Harry's favorite aunt and cousins lived. A visitor center, housed in a historic firehouse in downtown Independence, serves as the starting point for ranger-led guided tours that provide a remarkably intimate look at a presidential family's daily life.

Fifteen miles from Independence, in Grandview, Missouri, the Truman Farm Home anchors a remnant of the family's original farm. The farmhouse at 12301 Blue Ridge Boulevard was built in 1894 by Harry's maternal grandmother. Truman worked the land as a young man from 1906 to 1917, and his mother credited these years with giving him his 'common sense.' The site includes the two-story farmhouse, a reconstructed smokehouse, a Grandview post office that Truman converted into a garage for his 1911 Stafford automobile, a restored box wagon, and stone fence posts marking the farm's original boundaries. There is no visitor center, but the grounds are open year-round for self-guided tours with an audio tour available. After returning to private life, Truman sold portions of the farm for the Truman Corners Shopping Center and other suburban development -- a fitting, practical decision from the president who never owned a house until he was 69 years old.