The Key West Naval Station had been a strategic
training center with
naval submarines, naval surface craft and naval aviation, but Key West,
since its founding in the early 1820s, had been subject to the ebb and flow of
America's military needs. President Truman's death on December 26, 1972, caused
both the naval personnel and the citizens of Key West wanting to honor the memory
of their favorite adopted son. Mrs. Bess Truman and the US Navy approved a name
change for the portion of the Base containing the Little White House to the Harry
S. Truman Annex, Naval Air Station, Key West. The Navy's Public Works Department
drafted plans to create a presidential museum in Quarters A - The Little White
House.
The Little White House was individually listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in February 1974. It was a major contributing building in the
Key West Historic Naval District in 1974 and in the City of Key West
Historic District in 1984.
Unfortunately, changing technologies forced the closure of the Key West Submarine
Base equipped with diesel submarines in favor of other naval bases equipped
with more advanced larger nuclear powered submarines. On March 31,1974, the
Key West Submarine Base was official disestablished. Within a few months the
Little White House was boarded up and abandoned with the hope that the City
of Key West or possibly the county or state would open it as a presidential
museum.
Abandonment in
the tropics proved to be disastrous. Roofs leaked, ceilings collapsed
and vandals broken in and stole small objects. Much of the original furnishings
were left in the house in storage. Only the
rarest artifacts, the president's poker table and president's piano, were stored at the Key West Art
and Historical Society's East Martello Towers Museum.
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View of the roof damage to the
Truman Little White House.
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In 1979, Key West Mayor Charles (Sonny) McCoy and Florida Senator
Richard Stone proposed to the Carter's administration that the Little
White should be restored and used as a second presidential retreat,
comparable with Camp David. This would promote Key West economy that had been
hard hit by the navy's withdrawal. Carter, attempting to trim the federal budget,
was not interested in adding a second Camp David and the site remained abandoned.
The US Department of Interior was aware of a number of historic buildings
on the former naval station and required preservation and adaptive re-use for
nineteen naval structures by the potential developer. In April, 1986, the General
Services Administration declared the former submarine base to be surplus land
and offered it for sale at public auction on September 10, 1986. The winning
bidder was Pritam Singh, a Maine developer, for the sum of $17.4 million. The
Little White House might well have been converted into condominiums or even
the lobby of a hotel. The Governor and cabinet of Florida immediately began
protective measures. On January 1, 1987, in exchange for other development
rights, the Little White House building and an acre of land were transferred
to the State and named a Florida State Historic Site. It has since been declared
a Florida Heritage Landmark because of its national historic importance.
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It
became evident over the coming months, the twelve years of abandonment
had been costly and destructive to the house. Lacking the manpower and
the necessary funds to restore the house, the State and Mr. Singh created
an agreement for the private restoration of the site. Mr. Singh hired
Arva Parks of Miami and Elizabeth Ehrbar of Tallahassee to lead the preservation
efforts. This Herculean- task was completed in 1990 and the house was restored to a reasonable facsimile
of the 1949 Truman Era remodeling that had been conducted by Miami interior decorator Haygood Lasseter.
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The $1 million budget proved
inadequate and some compromise was necessary to order to open the house
to the public.
Thus began the need for Phase
II of the restoration.
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