Feature 449: 601 West Truman Road (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Frank and Natalie Wallace House.
Architectural Style: Bungalow.
Construction Date: 1915.
Period 2 of Harry S Truman’s Life: Establishing Community Roots, 1890-1919.
Tax Identification: 26-340-01-01 (owned by federal government).
Legal Description: Moore's Addition, east 57 feet of lot 1.
Description: Contributing one-story brick and wood-frame dwelling; rectangular in shape; hipped roof with hip roof dormer on front; double-hung sash wood windows; recessed porch across facade with square brick posts; concrete steps with wrought iron railing ascends porch on west side; concrete foundation with daylight basement. Slightly elevated lot with lawn; hedges along front foundation; property was once part of the Wallace Compound.
History/Significance: This property is now owned and preserved by the National Park Service as part of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site. It served as the home of Bess Truman's brother, Frank, and his wife, Natalie Ott Wallace. The house was constructed for them in 1915. The couple acquired a portion of a lot, once used for a small pasture and garden, behind the George P. and Elizabeth Gates house (later Harry and Bess Truman's home) just three weeks before the young couple's marriage on April 6, 1915. Frank Wallace, the second child of David and Madge Gates Wallace (parents of Bess Wallace Truman), and Natalie Ott had courted during outings that often included Harry Truman and Bess Wallace.
The Wallace house was probably not architect designed. A local Independence builder named Shaupe may have constructed the house. Natalie and Frank Wallace probably moved into the newly completed house in the late summer or early fall of 1915. The rear yard of Frank and Natalie Wallace's house, as well as George and May Wallace's home (next door, to the west, at 605 West Truman Road [Feature 450]), served as a private family gathering place for the Wallace and Truman families, especially valued during the Truman presidency. Both Wallace families served an important supportive role by caring for the Truman family and their home at 219 North Delaware Street [Feature 042] when the family lived in Washington, D.C., and visited their Independence home only occasionally.
Throughout much of his life, Frank Wallace worked in various business clerical and administrative jobs. As a young adult and during his courtship of Natalie Ott, he was employed as a clerk/bookkeeper by his grandfather's large and then prosperous Independence four milling business, the Waggoner-Gates Milling Company in Independence. By the late 1910s, Frank Wallace was employed by the Simons-Shields Lonsdale Grain Company. Around 1925, he began working as a bookkeeper for the Independence Ice and Creamery Company and eventually became the assistant manager and then president of that company in 1933. Financial problems at the Waggoner-Gates Milling Company may have influenced Frank Wallace to rejoin that company around 1933 as its vice president. Wallace retired from the company around 1957 while experiencing declining health; the milling company closed ten years later. Natalie Ott Wallace, in addition to keeping a reputedly immaculate house, participated in several social and cultural activities in Independence, including the Presbyterian Church (inside the Truman historic district [Feature 322]), several charitable organizations, and social groups, like the Tuesday Bridge Club that included Bess Truman. After the death of both Wallaces in 1960, the house was rented by the Wallace and Truman families for the next thirty years. The Frank Wallace House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site.