Feature 419: 314 North Spring Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Wyatt/Minor House.
Architectural Style: Italianate/Second Empire/Stick styles.
Construction Date: ca. 1885.
Period 1 of Harry S Truman’s Life: The Period of Pre-Significance, before 1890.
Tax Identification: 26-220-20-20.
Legal Description: Independence Annex, block 20, lot 21.
Description: Contributing two- and one-half story wood-frame dwelling; irregular in shape; complex mansard roof with gabled dormers and decorative brackets under eaves, clad with composition shingles; wood clapboard siding; double-hung sash vinyl windows; wrap-around porch on facade and sidewall with thin square porch columns; brick foundation. Level lot with lawn; shrubs planted along the foundation.
• Alterations: Minor remodeling was completed around 1900; a wrap-around porch was added early on; double front doors with leaded and etched opaque glass panels with a transom light above were added; window material had been altered in recent years.
• The property also includes a contributing small plain barn/carriage house in the rear with double doors on the front and back walls [Feature 420].
History/Significance: Nancy ("Nannie") and Charles L. Minor, who were married in 1883, bought this property in 1900. Around that time, they hired architect John Van Brunt to make some minor repair/remodeling changes to the house. Nancy and Charles had two daughters, Eleanor and Grace Minor, who lived in the Minor House from 1900 until the death of Eleanor Minor in 1982. The Minor sisters contributed to the cultural and social vitality of Independence in the twentieth century. Bess Wallace and the Minor sisters were close friends nearly throughout their lives. As adults, the three women were members of a small Independence bridge club that even met in the White House after Harry Truman became president. The Harry S Truman family often visited the Minor sisters in their home. The Minor sisters were personal houseguests of the Trumans in the White House, attending a formal White House dinner in their honor. When President Truman died, the Minor sisters attended his memorial service held on January 5, 1974, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Nancy McCoy Minor was the daughter of William and Ellen Waddle McCoy. William McCoy arrived in Independence from Ohio in 1838. He soon opened a dry goods store, which outfitted freight and emigrant wagons going west from Independence in the 1840s. In 1849, William McCoy became the first mayor of Independence, just a few weeks after the city was incorporated for the second time. In the 1860s, McCoy helped organize and open a bank in Independence, known as "McCoy Bank.” Present-day William McCoy Park, near the Truman Presidential Museum and Library, and nearby McCoy Street were both named in recognition of his contributions to the early development of Independence. In 1850, McCoy married Ellen Waddle, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio. The two children of William and Ellen McCoy, Nancy and Allen, grew up about half a block from the Minor House at 410 West Farmer Street [Feature 143].
The property on which the Minor House stands once belonged to Samuel Weston, pioneer blacksmith, who arrived in Independence in 1821 and lived in the town until his death in 1846. His blacksmith son, Robert Weston, and Robert's wife Nancy, eventually acquired the property at 314 North Spring Street. In 1884, they sold it to Frank C. and Laura A. Wyatt. Frank Wyatt, associated with the early Bank of Independence for many years, had the present house built in 1885. Following the death of Frank Wyatt in the 1890s, the family of John Modie bought the house. The Minor House is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.