Feature 433: 420 North Spring Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Walker House.
Architectural Style: Queen Anne.
Construction Date: ca. 1900.
Period 2 of Harry S Truman’s Life: Establishing Community Roots, 1890-1919.
Tax Identification: 26-220-20-25.
Legal Description: Independence Annex, block 20, lot 25.
Description: Contributing two-story wood-frame dwelling; irregular in shape; complex hipped and cross-gabled roof with boxed cornice at gable ends, clad with composition shingles; asbestos siding; one-over-one double-hung sash wood windows; wrap-around porch with hipped roof supported by tapered square wood columns, balustrade encircles; concrete foundation. Slightly elevated lot sloping down to street; lawn; shade trees in side and rear yards.
• Alterations: The front porch has been altered; newer siding added.
History/Significance: Thomas J. Walker, a druggist doing business at 101 South Main [Feature 225], was living in the house in 1906 and 1908. The Reverend F. Franklin Walters of the First Christian Church lived in the house in 1911, and stayed there until sometime prior to 1916. In 1912, house residents included Jennie E. Kinkead, Maurine Kinkead, Reed Kinkead, and Verda L. Kinkead, as well as Reverend Walters. By 1916, Ralph R. and Robert P. Baldwin had moved into the house. H. Stone Gossett lived in the house in 1920. Stone was the son of Mathias Gossett, city councilman, and Kitty Bourne Gossett. Stone was a dentist in Independence for thirty years; he died on September 15, 1938, at home. He was born on November 12, 1877, in Owensboro, Kentucky, and moved to Independence, Missouri at the age of seven. He attended Public Schools and graduated from Kansas City Western Dental College in 1900. He served in the Mexican border campaign with Battalion E of the Missouri Militia. He married Katherine Slusher Gossett. The Gossett family continued to occupy the house until sometime after 1954.