President Truman's doctor suggested he retreat to a warmer climate to recuperate from bronchial pneumonia. He came without his family the first visit. He thrived here and soon had the house spiffed up so that he could convince Bess and Margaret to join him. He spent 175 days of his presidency here.
We entered the Truman Annex at the Whitehead Street Presidential Gates at 111 Front Street. The Truman Annex previously was a military base. The building used for the Little White House was built in 1890 as a duplex to house the base commandant and the paymaster. In the early 1900s it was converted into a single family dwelling to house the base commandant. During WWI, Thomas Edison lived here while working on research for the U.S. Navy. President Eisenhower recuperated from a heart attack here in 1956. During the Bay of Pigs incident President Kennedy met here with Prime Minister MacMillan. The Carters spent holidays and New Years Eve here.
No longer used as a Presidential Retreat, the
property still hosts meetings with world dignitaries.
We purchased our tour tickets ($10/adult) in the gift shop and then waited in a small museum. The buildings, while listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are owned, maintained and tours provided by Historic Tours of America®. They do an excellent job.
We entered the former duplex and immediately went upstairs to a suite of rooms that had been converted into a small theater. Here we watched a good film about the life of Harry S. Truman. We followed the guide into the other duplex where we could see the "palatial" room that Harry had redecorated to lure Bess to Key West. Connecting bathrooms provided a private entrance to President Truman's room. He stayed in a separate room because he often worked late into the night. His room had windows out onto the veranda on two sides and he always had security and White House personnel stationed out there. When he traveled he took a brief case filled with 78 rpm recordings of his favorite music. He was the only one allowed to carry that case. The tour continued on the main floor veranda. This room was the playground and workstation for Truman. He hosted many national and foreign dignitaries in the recreation room. The furniture was bamboo with tropical flower upholstered. In one corner was large round poker table. In the video we watched it mentioned that the president spent evenings reading or watching movies. "Watching movies". Well, this what he really did. He would put the word out to gather a forum and they would play poker and drink bourbon.
Connected to the game room is a formal dinning room that was the diplomatic and family gathering place for several presidents. On the veranda just outside the dining room is a tiny telephone booth that housed the secret service man. The living room seems very stiff and formal, but it did serve as the President’s office also.