Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / In 2011, the United States Secretary of the Interior approved a proposal for expansion of the Harry S. Truman National Historic Landmark District in Independence, Missouri. The expansion of the historic district and the subsequent press resulting from the expansion was the inspiration for this report. The topic area of this report is historic preservation. Historic districts come with increased rules and regulations that can be seen as limiting a resident’s use of the properties within these districts. This report is concerned with the actual condition within a historic district with a central hypothesis that historic districts do have a positive association with property condition. In order to answer the research question, a multiple-case replication explanatory case study was performed using the original landmark district boundaries and two comparable nearby neighborhoods outside of the historic landmark district. The case study utilized secondary sources and in-field observations to analyze seven researchable factors about the parcels within the study areas. These factors were compared and contrasted during the cross case analysis. To further the understanding of the study area, a detailed profile of the City of Independence, Missouri, was produced. This profile looked at the historical development of the city, as well as economic and demographic statistics. The theoretical framework behind historic districts was also analyzed for this report. It is beneficial to look at this question in order to evaluate the potential implementation of a historic district that a planner may face in their municipality such as whether historic preservation regulations should be maintained, expanded, or eliminated or a historic district should be put in place. The report ends with a conclusionary chapter including recommendations, lessons for planning professionals, and ideas for further research.

Mormonism is among the most studied religious phenomena of American history. Yet little attention has been devoted to one of its most telling and, at the time, most famous chapters, the “Temple Lot Case” of 1891-1896, a legal battle over sacred space, cultural memory, group identity, and judicial intervention in religion. The suit involved three rival Mormon sects: Granville Hedrick’s Church of Christ, based in Independence, Missouri; Joseph Smith III’s Reorganized Church, based in Lamoni, Iowa; and Brigham Young’s LDS Church, based in Utah. In previous decades, the churches had forged distinct identities from one another, stemming from their divergent interpretations of Mormonism’s founding prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844). The “Hedrickites” lionized the teachings of Smith’s early years, the “Josephites” emphasized the moderate teachings of Smith’s middle years, and the “Brighamites” institutionalized the controversial semi-secret teachings of Smith’s final years. In 1891, the Reorganized Church filed suit in the Eighth Federal Circuit Court for possession of the Temple Lot Smith dedicated at Independence in 1831. The Hedrickites owned it, the Josephites thought they had a better claim to it, and the Brighamites sought to prevent the Josephites from obtaining it. The Reorganized Church presented evidence demonstrating it was the rightful successor of Joseph Smith’s church; the Hedrickites and Brighamites countered with evidence of their own. The case produced an array of notable witnesses, including elites from Mormonism’s founding generation, leaders from its divided second generation, and figures from Missouri’s colorful past. Newspapers from the New York Times to the Anaconda Standard followed the suit closely. The present work is the first book-length study of the Temple Lot Case. It offers one of the most in-depth treatments of a U.S. religious property suit to date. It chronicles the establishment and fragmentation of arguably America’s most successful native-born religion. It examines the contestation of an American sacred space. And it traces the differentiation of collective memory and identity among competing religious siblings. / text