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Over time time an image can play a role that wasn’t originally intended. This postcard from the early 1900s is a good example.
It shows Pleasant Street on the west edge of the Independence Square, looking north from Kansas Street. The building at the end of the block is the First Baptist Church.
But it’s the red brick church with the big spire and round windows in the foreground that became a part of presidential lore.
The First Presbyterian Church is where a six year-old Harry Truman first met five year-old Bess Wallace while attending Sunday School not long after his family moved to Independence from Lamar, Missouri in 1890.
By his own account, Harry was much more taken with her than she was with him..
In 1919, almost 30 years later later, the two were married. After spending some very eventful time in Washington, the couple returned to Independence to spend the rest of their days.
Today, a bronze plaque at the front of First Presbyterian commemorates the church’s unique role in both local and world history.
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