Feature 062: 408 North Delaware Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Brooks/Bowdle House.
Architectural Style: Queen Anne.
Construction Date: ca. 1890.
Period 2 of Harry S Truman’s Life: Establishing Community Roots, 1890-1919.
Tax Identification: 26-310-23-26.
Legal Description: McCauley Addition, part of lot 3 and Nichol Homestead, part of lots 16, 17, 18, and 19.
Description: Contributing two- and one-half story wood-frame dwelling; irregular in shape; gabled roof with boxed gabled end on facade, clad in composition shingles; clapboard siding along with wood shingles in front wooden columns with ionic capitals; stone foundation. Elevated lot with uncoursed cut stone retaining wall along sidewalk; large foundation plantings; shade trees.
• Alterations: Large, two-story, flat roofed rear addition, which is not conspicuous from the public right-of-way; the cumulative visual effect of the alterations does not lessen the character-defining features of the building and it does not detract from the historic character of the streetscape and the district as a whole. North side of the house also has an exterior staircase leading to the second floor.
History/Significance: The original owners of this Queen Anne style home, probably built in the late nineteenth century, are not known. Phillip Brooks lived here in the early 1900s. Joseph A. Bowdle, a realtor, and his wife, Margaret ("Maggie") E., were occupants from around 1905 to the mid-1920s. In the mid-1920s, not long after the death of former Independence mayor Christian Ott in October 1924, his widow, Maude Ott, moved into this house with her sister, Mabel (Mrs. E.L.) Webb. Maude Ott died at her home at 408 North Delaware Street in September 1933. In the 1940s and early 1950s, Mrs. Kath Mathews lived in this house, followed by the family of George McMahan around 1953.