Hiram Young Homeownership and Opportunity Center

Capital Campaign

Hiram Young Homeownership and Opportunity Center

The vision:

The Hiram Young Homeownership and Opportunity Center will serve as Truman Heritage Habitat’s headquarters and as a gathering place for the community. There will be a classroom for local organizations or businesses to use, a museum to highlight the building’s unique history, and a space for events. The Life Skills Center in the Gymnasium will be available for the community to reserve for trainings, workshops, cooking classes and more. The center will be in a restored historic building, the first and only black school in the area. We are excited to preserve this building and the legacy it provides, honoring Hiram Young and all of the students who learned there.

The goal:

Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity is undergoing a capital campaign to raise funds for the restoration and Homeownership and Opportunity Center. Kansas City foundations such as the Schutte Foundation, the Victor E. Speas Foundation, the Goppert Foundation, the Sunderland Foundation and the William T. Kemper Foundation are supporting the capital campaign. Truman Habitat has raised more than half of the needed funds to finish the project.

Help us create a legacy for the community in Independence. If you’re interested in supporting this wonderful community and historic building, please contact Carla Simpson at csimpson@trumanhabitat.org or call 816-461-6551 now.

The history:

The original Hiram Young School was the first all-black school west of the Mississippi when it opened in 1874. The school moved in 1934 to the current location, 505 North Dodgion Street. This is the location Truman Heritage Habitat is working to restore. A classroom will be preserved as museum, complete with old school desks, chalk boards, and relics from the school’s era. The school is a landmark on the African-American Historic Sites of Independence Tour.

Young, born a slave, is best known for a successful business making yokes and wagons for settlers headed west in the years before the Civil War. He bought freedom for himself and his family. He also strongly supported education for African-Americans.

Sponsorship opportunities and Missouri NAP tax credits are available. Please contact Carla Simpson at csimpson@trumanhabitat.org or call 816-461-6551.