Discover the fascinating story of President Harry Truman’s Key West hideaway, where the 33rd president made history-changing decisions while wearing tropical shirts and playing poker. From atomic bomb decisions to NATO’s foundation, explore how this humble Florida Keys retreat became America’s “Little White House.”
The unconventional presidential wardrobe in Key West
The photographs on the wall are gloriously unstatesmanlike. The commander-in-chief, leader of the free world and most powerful human being on earth is dressed in a ludicrously garish tropical shirt and a pair of khaki slacks.
It is unconventional presidential garb, but then Harry Truman was something of an unconventional president. His ‘Key West uniform’, often accompanied by a pith helmet or wide-brimmed golf hat, would be ritually adopted every time he came down to his favoured spot for a working holiday.
- Want to skip the story and just book your tickets for the Little White House? Then head this way…
How President Truman discovered his Key West Paradise
Truman’s association with Key West, the last island in the archipelago heading into the Gulf of Mexico from Florida‘s southern tip, began in November 1946. He was exhausted, and his doctor ordered him to take a warm weather holiday.
Finding a suitable spot was the tricky part, though, until Admiral Chester Nimitz remembered the old commandant’s house on the naval base in Key West. Truman enjoyed his initial stay there so much that he swore to return every March and November during his presidency.
In time, President Truman’s home away from Washington DC became known as ‘the Little White House’.
From naval base to presidential museum
The house is no longer part of the naval base. The land was sold off to become a plush private development called The Truman Annex in honour of its most prestigious former guest, but the Little White House was given to the state, and is now operated as a museum.
There’s nowhere better to delve into the life, achievements, controversies and idiosyncrasies of Truman – who became President on April 12, 1945. An awful lot happened on his watch – including:
- The foundation of both Israel and NATO
- The authorisation of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe
- The desegregation of the US military
- The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Presidential working holidays: Business never stopped
The Little White House was part of this rather history-shaping workload than an escape from it. The 175 days Truman spent in Key West during his presidency were hardly time off.
It was working holiday time rather than pure vacation, and the apparatus of power had to move down to the island. The presidential yacht would be sailed down in advance, mainly for its ship to shore communications capabilities that allowed the unreliable public phone line that stretched all the way up the Keys to be bypassed.
President Truman would also have a phone hooked up to his beachside cabana.
- Secure your spot by advance-booking your ticket to Truman’s Little White House.
The daily grind: 600 signatures and bourbon breakfasts
Mail would be flown in from Washington every other day, and Truman would complain that all the paperwork meant he had to sign his own name up to 600 times a day. But he did manage to mix business and pleasure, even if it became oddly regimented.
In a display case, a typical day in Truman’s Key West life is documented. He’d get up at 7.30am – a blessed lie-in compared to his 5.30am starts in Washington – and start the morning with a supposedly medicinal ‘heart-starter’ shot of bourbon.
Harry Truman’s work was structured around a couple of hours walking or swimming in the morning, plus a mid-afternoon break for a nap and writing personal letters.
Family time and press relations at the Little White House
If his wife came to stay as well, they’d go out fishing – something Harry was indifferent to, but Bess loved – while press conferences would be punctuated by him handing out the excess garish shirts he had been given for free. But the best sense of life in the Little White House comes on the guided tour around it, led by guides with a disturbingly detailed knowledge of Truman.
“He was born on a farm and never attended college,” says Bruce, who must have reeled out this information hundreds of times before but still sounds utterly enthused. “Thick glasses kept him from active sport so he took up reading instead.”
- Avoid disappointment. Book online for guaranteed entry.
The Humble Origins of America’s Most Relatable President
His story is remarkably humdrum and unheroic. He met his future wife in Sunday school, aged six, lived in the non-descript town of Independence, Missouri, and slowly worked his way up through politics after his haberdashery business failed.
But his ordinariness turned out to be his greatest strength. The press corps was generally onside, referring to him as “Truman the human” and laughing at his references to the White House in Washington DC as “the great white jail”.
He would make his own bed every morning, he insisted on paying for his own stamps for private letters rather than abusing government funds and the briefcase he refused to give up to anyone contained not important documents, but his record collection.
The poorest president in American History
“He was arguably the poorest president in history,” says Bruce. “After his second term was over, he lived at his mother-in-law’s house and didn’t own his own home until after he had written his memoirs.”
The Little White House fits Truman’s character. The odd indulgence is buried amongst unflashy normalcy.
He and his wife had separate bedrooms (apparently presidential convention until Gerald Ford changed it – it was not thought proper to wake the family up if urgent business needed attending to during the night) and both beds look spartanly uncomfortable.
- When Key West gets busy, so does the Little White House. Get your tickets now.
Presidential poker games and 24-hour bars
There’s a very boysy feel to the lounge area, despite the gloriously horrible tropical flowery furniture. At one end is a bar, which would be open 24 hours a day while the president was staying.
It was more for his guests, though – despite bourbon for breakfast, Truman rarely overindulged on the drink. He didn’t smoke either, despite ashtrays being built into the specially-commissioned mahogany poker table that stands in the corner.
Poker games broke out almost nightly, always for small sums, and always with the president sat in the corner seat before he retired to bed at 11pm.
The concert pianist president’s hidden talents
Yet just when you think Truman was an underwhelming character, there’s a surprise. His piano takes pride of place in the exhibit room.
The bookish, down-to-earth president, it seems, was also a concert pianist. The tale goes that Bess forbid him from playing in public after a photo of Lauren Bacall draped over Truman’s piano was splashed all over the newspapers.
The exhibits also include a letter that Truman wrote to a Washington post critic, threatening to break his nose after giving his opera singer daughter Margaret a bad review. Those little glimpses of a feisty maverick streak make the man much more endearing.
- Find out more on the Little White House tour. Buy tickets here.
Truman’s Legacy: From Worst to Respected President
When Truman left office, he had popularity ratings of just 23%. He was considered the worst president of all time but the years that have passed since have been much kinder to his reputation.
And at his hideaway at the very end of the country he once ruled, the President Truman’s quiet authority shines through beyond the loud shirts.
Visiting the Truman Little White House
Tours of the Truman Little White House cost from $25.75. The museum offers guided tours with knowledgeable guides who bring Truman’s story to life with fascinating historical details and personal anecdotes. You can book tickets here.
Other fun options in Key West include rum-tasting and a day trip to the Dry Tortugas.
More Florida travel
Other Florida travel articles on Planet Whitley include:
- A comical mess at Orlando Airport.
- Saying hi to the Apollo Beach manatees near Tampa.
- 5 reasons to visit Miami on a round-the-world trip.
- Exploring the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.
- Guide to the St Andrews State Park to Shell Island ferry.
