-
Harry S. Truman Little White House
The Harry S. Truman Little White
House in Key West, Florida was the winter retreat and White House
for the 33rd President of the United States, when he visited the
small island on 11 visits that totaled 175 days altogether, and is
sits in the Truman Annex neighborhood of Old Town, Key West. The
house had originally been a waterfront cottage when it was
constructed in 1890 as the first officer's quarters located on the
naval submarine base, with the wooden duplex housing the commandant
in Quarters A and Quarters B for the paymaster. It would be
transformed into a single family in 1911 where the commandant would
live, with more land filled in at its front. Soon, the marvelous
view that had been part of the charm of the house would be obscured
by a new building that was constructed for the base. William Howard
Taft would be the first president to visit the base, in December,
1912, coming by Flagler's Overseas Railroad and he would then sail
to Panama to see how the new canal was doing that was under
construction. Thomas Edison would use the habitat during WWI, while
he donated his services to the nation, perfecting 41 weapons while
he was here for six months. The house would continue to be used a
command headquarters during WWII, until 1946, when Truman's doctor
ordered the President to take a vacation in a warm climate since he
hadn't gone anywhere during his first 19 months in office. Harry
came here in November, and when he left, he promised to come back
whenever he felt tired and needed rest. The next time he came here
would be in the spring of 1947, which seemed to start a pattern of
visits every November-December and February-March, with the modern
changing technology allowing him to keep in touch with all pertinent
people, as well as world leaders. It wasn't long before Harry
realized that wherever the President of the United States was, that
was also where the White House would be located, for that period.
Any types of documents that were sent from there would have The
White House, US Naval Station, Key West, Florida. It would be in
this small vacation home that James Forrestal and the Joint Chiefs
of Staff would meet in 1947 to finish the details about the new
Department of Defense, and all these meetings would later be called
the Key West Accords. Once Harry was out of office, he came here
several times, but always stayed elsewhere. In 1948 and 1949,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, would hold a number of meetings here
that would finally lead to the creation of the Department of
Defense, returning in December 1955 and January 1956 as the
President and to recuperate from a heart attack. In March of 1961,
John Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan came here
to hold a one day conference, with President Kennedy coming back
here in 1962 after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The house
continued to be the naval station's commandant's quarters until
March of 1974, when the base would close since the Navy converted
from diesel to nuclear submarines, and in February the little White
House would be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Finally, in January, 1987, the house was deeded to the state of
Florida to open as a public museum. In 1990, more than a million
dollars would be spent in its restoration to what it was in 1949,
and a nonprofit is currently trying to renovate it further, although
it has opened as a state historic site and museum, with former
President Jimmy Carter and his family coming here to have a reunion
in 1996. In 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell, opened a week
long talk about OSCE peace, led by the Minsk Group co-chairman,
Carey Cavanaugh between President Robert Korcharyan of Armenia and
Heydar Aliyev of Axerbaijan. President Bill Clinton and his wife,
Senator Hillary Clinton came here in 2005 for a relaxing weekend,
and it continues to stand and encourage visitors to this historical
house on the edge of Key West.
-
Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park
 The
Fort Taylor State Historic Site in Key West, Florida is well known
to locals as Fort Taylor or Fort Zach, and is the southern most
state park in the United States, and also a National Historic
Landmark that is highlighted by a Civil War era fort that sits by
the southern tip of the island. The construction of the fort would
start in 1845, as part of a large mid-19th century plan to fortify
the southeast coastline with forts. It would be named after
President Zachary Taylor in 1850, just a few months after his sudden
death in the office, while yellow fever and material shortages
hindered the construction that would continue through the 1850s.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Federal captain John Milton
Brannan seized control of the fort, wanting to make sure that the
fort wouldn't fall into Confederate hands, as well as using it as an
outpost to threaten blockade runners. When it was built, it was
surrounded by water, with a small walkway connecting it to the
mainland, being finished in 1866. Part of an upper level on one side
would be demolished in 1889, to make way for more modern cannons and
guns, with the older guns being buried on the outside wall
foundations to save on materials. It would take the Spanish-American
War to get the fort back up to par and useful, until 1947, when it
was no longer needed by the army; and finally turned over to the US
Navy to maintain. Then, in 1968, a group of volunteers led by Howard
S. England, would excavate the Civil War guns and ammunitions that
had been buried there for more than a century, and it would be
discovered that the cache of weapons found would be the biggest
collection of Civil War cannons in the nation. It was put on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and then made a
National Historic Landmark in 1973. The park contains 87 acres of
land now, and parts of it that had been closer to downtown was
annexed into the Truman Annex that is about three miles to the
northwest.
|
Car Rentals
Key West
The
Key West Shipwreck Historeum Museum sits along Whitehead Street in
Key West, Florida, mixing films, actors and the authentic relics
that were recovered from the 1985 wrecked vessel, Isaac Allerton,
that had sank on the Florida keys in 1856, and became one of the
richest shipwrecks in the city's history. The museum describes the
story from the point of view from wrecker Asa Tift and his wrecking
crew, as he describes the fantastic story of how this unique
industry gave livelihoods to the early pioneers of the island. The
Isaac Allerton had been made at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1838,
weighing 594 tons and 137 feet long. It was a merchant ship that
traveled the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Ocean.
It met a hurricane in 1856, sinking in Hawks Channel thirty feet
below the surface. At that time, thirty feet was considered very
deep, so the Key West wreckers couldn't salvage all the cargo, but
what they were able to save enabled them to have a $50,000 payday,
making it the richest wreck in the history of Key West. Then, in
1985, she would be rediscovered by a group of local divers that were
searching for the famous Atocha wreck.