Key West Attractions That We Enjoyed The Little White House. Harry S. Truman is one of only eight vice presidents who succeeded to the office of president due to the death of his president. Truman was the seventh who had this experience when President Roosevelt died in April 1945. He became president as World War II was drawing to a close, but he had to make one of the most stressful decisions ever made by a U.S. president: the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Truman was one month short of his sixty-first birthday when he became president. He was in the middle of his first term as a senator from Missouri. By the time he had served 19 months in the White House, he was physically exhausted. His doctor ordered complete rest and recommended a warm climate. Staff members who had spent time in the military suggested the commandant’s house at the U.S. Naval Base in Key West. The house was built in 1890 for the Navy’s base commander and paymaster. The 8,700 square foot home required interior redecoration that cost $35,000. Over the next six-anda-half years, the president spent 175 days at the Navy base, coming twice a year in November and March. Because communication technology had improved significantly during WWII, it was not difficult for Truman to have daily conferences with his staff in Washington. When he felt it was necessary, cabinet and staff members made the 3-hour flight from Washington to the Key West Naval Air Station at Boca Chica. Courier pouches arrived daily from Washington.
Truman often entertained the press and his staff with picnics and fishing trips. At the Little White House, the president developed a very strict regimen. He began his day with bourbon and orange juice, a one-hour walk, and a two-hour swim. He was in his office by 10 a.m. and meetings often extended into the evening. But when staff and cabinet members were in town, they often played poker in the living room on a table that was custombuilt for Truman. Each seated position had an ash tray made from a brass shell casing. On one occasion, an enlisted man received an assignment
to bring products from Cuba and the Caribbean countries into the U.S. His trains could haul freight into the states faster and cheaper than ships could bring their cargos up the east coast. Passenger service was in Flagler’s marketing plan, too. On New Year’s Eve 1920, the Casa Marina opened as Florida’s most luxurious destination. Sadly, he died in 1918 while the resort was in its planning stages, but the architects and the FEC executives wanted the resort to serve as a testament to Flagler’s vision and contributions to the economic development of Florida. Now owned by Hilton Hotels’ Waldorf-Astoria division, the Casa Marina went through a $43 million overhaul recently to restore it to its original grandeur. Plan to have lunch at the Casa Marina, or even stay a couple of nights to enjoy the flavor of a bygone era. After the 1935 Labor Day hurricane destroyed much of the FEC Railway, Key West again found itself isolated from the U.S. mainland. Classified as one of the three worst storms of the century, the hurricane took the lives of hundreds of residents in the keys and over 400 World War I veterans and their families who were living in camps on Windley and Lower Matecumbe Keys. Suffering from the hardships of the Great Depression, the unemployed
veterans had been sent to the keys to work on the federal highway the government was building to connect Key West to the Florida peninsula. Three years later construction of an automobile highway to Key West was completed, using much of the route originally constructed by the FEC Railway. The Overseas Highway, as it is sometimes called, is an extension of U.S. 1, which runs 2,369 miles along our east coast from Key West all the way to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border. Flagler’s legacy also included a huge landfill at Trumbo Point for his railyards. The landfill is now a part of the facility used by the U.S. Coast Guard. The Key West Naval Air Station on Boca Chica Key, just four miles east of the central business district of Key West, is blessed with near-perfect flying weather year round and unparalleled aerial ranges for air crew training within minutes after pilots take-off. Key West’s importance as a military post increased during World War II. At the beginning of the war, the Navy had only 50 acres on Boca Chica. By the end of the war, the Navy base had expanded to over 3,000 acres which included a critically positioned submarine base. The Navy built a fresh water
36 Roughing It Smoothly
The Little White House