Feature 216: 207-209 North Main Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Twyman Hotel/Factory Outlet Department Store.
Architectural Style: Commercial.
Construction Date: 1830s/ca. 1923.
Period 3 of Harry S Truman's Life: Developing Political Skills and Associations, 1920-1933.
Tax Identification: 26-230-02-05.
Legal Description: Old Town, part of lot 4.
Description: Contributing two-story brick commercial building; rectangular in shape; flat roof concealed behind stepped parapet on west-facing facade; large plate-glass display windows (ground floor) and one-over-one double-hung sash windows (second floor), six bays wide; two shop entrances on ground floor. Located in the middle of the block about one-half block from the Courthouse; adjoined on the north and south walls by commercial buildings.
• Alterations: Shallow hip-roof above second-floor windows, supported by brackets at each end, removed since 1975; ground-floor windows/walls remodeled.
History/Significance: This is the site of the Twyman hotel (1831-1872), and then the Kenton House (beginning in 1873), reportedly one of the most fashionable early hotels in Independence. Although the building is no longer extant, parts of the older building's walls reportedly exist, after a circa 1923 remodeling that substantially altered the earlier building, including the removal of the upper floor. The original owners/occupants of this 1923 building are not known at present. In the late 1920s and 1930s, the building's two ground-floor shops were occupied by the annex of the Factory Outlet Department Store, located across the street at 206 North Main Street [Feature 215].