Harry S. Truman Little White House

Part of the fun in touring Key West was in just walking the streets. Key West is a subtropical town which is lush with vegetation of palms, hibiscus,and bougainvillea. They adorn the homes of the rich and poor alike. Some of the older homes are quite beautiful with Bahamian architecture and others have not seen a coat of paint in years. And we will always remember Key West as the town that has chickens everywhere.

We parked our car early in the day and walked over to the older part of town. After touring the Hemingway home, we walked to what is now called the Naval Annex. On those grounds is located the Truman Little White House. The house was built in 1890 on the waterfront for a naval commandant. It was visited once by President Taft in 1911. Truman used this house 175 days during is administration of 1945-1953. He spent 11 working vacations here, during which time he made many momentous presidential decisions (one of which was the firing of General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War). The house currently is furnished in a 1948 style. President John Kennedy met here with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1961, for a summit meeting 23 days before the Bay of Pigs crisis. Three other presidents have visited here. The house has seen a of of history!  Descendants of past presidents have come back to stay in the house, President Carer had a family reunion here. An invitation has extended to President Obama, but he has not been there yet.

This picture above is of the Little White House. The six flags in the picture were placed in 2001 when Secretary of State Colin Powell held peace talks at the house between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Under international protocol, the flags of the combatant nations are placed on the ends with the flag of the United States in between. Other national flags represented were France and Russia. All too soon our day ended at Key West. We did not see  everything that the town had to offer but certainly hope return some day. I have one more picture of the Keys at sunset, but no windy weather now.