Around the Corner: Bundschu House

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• You  should  be  standing  in  front  of  601  West  Maple  Street,  the  Bundschu  house.    It  was  built  in  the  1890s.  Anton  Bundschu  was  the  owner  of  Bundschu's  Department  Store  about  four  blocks  east  up  on  the  town  square.    Bundschu’s  was  the  largest  department  store  in  the  city  at  the  time.    The  Trumans,  Gates,  and  Wallace  families  would  have  been  among  the  many  Independence  residents  who  patronized  Bundschu's  Department  Store.  Anton’s  son,  Henry  Bundschu,  owned  the  house  after  his  parents  died.    Henry  was  a  long-time  friend  of  Harry  Truman.  Doris  Miller,  Bess  Truman’s  hairdresser,  referred  to  Henry  Bundschu  as  the  “most  staunch  Republican  we  had  on  our  street.”    But  Doris  remembered  Mr.  Truman  and  Mr.  Bundschu  sitting  in  her  husband  George’s  barbershop  together,  leaving  “arm-in-arm,  going  down  the  street”  towards  their  homes  “just  a’  chatting.”    
  
  So  this  is  another  example  of  how  all  these  people  were  connected.    They  knew  each  other,  they  worked  together,  they  patronized  each  other’s  businesses,  their  families  had    know  each  other  for  years  –  in  fact,  a  bunch  of  them  were  related;  Bess  Truman’s  sister-in-law,  Natalie  Wallace,  was  Henry  Bundschu’s  cousin.  There  was  a  real  sense  of  continuity  here  that  gave  life  a  feeling  of  stability.
  
  So,  this  is  something  to  think  about:    Harry  Truman  was  the  president  of  the  United  States  for  almost  eight  full  years.    He  and  Joseph  Stalin  and  Winston  Churchill  made  the  decision  as  to  what  to  do  with  Europe  after  World  War  II,  Truman  launched  the  Truman  Doctrine,  which  kept  Greece  and  Turkey  out  of  the  Soviet  Union.    He  was  the  first  world  leader  to  recognize  the  new  nation  of  Israel,  he  established  the  CIA  and  the  Department  of  Defense  and  the  Air  Force.    He  dropped  the  atomic  bomb.    He  led  us  to  war  in  Korea,  he  fired  General  Douglas  MacArthur.    And  he  did  more  for  civil  rights  than  any  president  since  Abraham  Lincoln.
  
  Having  a  home  like  Independence  and  knowing  that  stability  still  existed  in  a  world  like  that  might  have  given  him  a  faith  that,  regardless  of  how  chaotic  things  might  seem,  no  matter  how  out  of  control  the  world  might  appear,  there  still  were  places  and  people  and  situations  that  one  could  count  on.    There  were  safe  places.    And  if  it  could  happen  here,  maybe  it  could  happen  in  other  places.    Maybe  Independence  gave  Harry  Truman  the  faith  to  keep  trying  to  make  the  world  a  better  place  rather  than  just  give  up  on  it,  because,  maybe,  he  might  be  able  to  actually  do  it.    
  
  Whether  he  was  right  about  that,  I  don’t  know.    And  it  didn’t  mean  he  thought  every  place  in  the  world  ought  to  be  just  like  Independence,  Missouri,  either.    The  world’s  full  of  different  kinds  of  people  and  the  lifestyle  one  group  prefers  may  not  be  anything  like  what  another  group  would  prefer.    But  the  idea  that  everyone  might  eventually  live  in  a  world  where  they  felt  safe  and  secure,  he  really  seemed  to  believe.  
   
  Harry  Truman  was  a  practical  idealist.    Knowing  that  is  kind  of  important  if  you’re  trying  to  understand  the  kind  of  president  he  was.    He  knew  the  world  wasn’t  perfect  and  he  knew  it  probably  never  would  be,  but  still,  it  didn’t  hurt  to  try  to  make  it  better.  The  “staunch  Republican”  Henry  Bundschu  once  made  the  comment,  “I  used  to  say  that  Harry  Truman  lived  around  the  corner  from  me;  now  there  isn’t  a  day  goes  by  that  I  don’t  tell  myself  ‘you  live  around  the  corner  from  Harry  Truman  and  don’t  you  ever  forget  it.’
  Buildings  and  people  weren’t  the  only  touchstones  Harry  Truman  had  in  on  this  block,  though.    This  sounds  kind  of  weird,  but  there  was  a  tree  he  seemed  particularly  fond  of.    On  his  morning  walks  he’d  always  pass  by  and  stop  and  look  at.    Go  on  west  to  the  next  stop  at  Number  611  West  Maple.
  

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