The house predates Truman by more than half a century. Designed in 1889 by the local firm of Scott, McDermott & Higgs, it was built in 1890 as the first officer's quarters on the U.S. naval station at Key West. The wooden duplex originally held Quarters A for the base commandant and Quarters B for the paymaster, and it sat right on the water's edge. In 1911, the building was converted into a single-family dwelling for the commandant, and over the decades, landfill pushed the waterfront farther away, eventually blocking the ocean view entirely. But the house had already hosted distinguished guests. President William Howard Taft visited in December 1912, arriving by Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad before sailing to Panama to inspect the canal under construction. During World War I, Thomas Edison lived in the house while contributing his inventive talents to the war effort.

Truman's Key West days followed a comfortable rhythm. He rose at seven for a morning walk around the base or into town, then boarded the presidential yacht Williamsburg for breakfast. Mornings meant working through his mail until around ten, when he headed to Truman Beach to discuss policy with aides, often cooling off with a swim. Lunch came at one. By four o'clock the poker table was set, and the games that followed were not merely recreational -- cabinet members and foreign officials joined regularly, and the informal setting encouraged the kind of candid exchange that formal Washington discouraged. Dinner was served at seven. The relaxed atmosphere belied the weight of what was decided here. Truman used these working vacations to shape postwar American foreign policy, including discussions that informed the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.

The Little White House was not all poker and sunshine. In 1948, the Joint Chiefs of Staff gathered here for meetings that produced the Key West Agreement, which unified the armed services and helped establish the modern Department of Defense. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who facilitated those discussions, returned to the house himself after becoming president. In December 1955 and January 1956, Eisenhower recuperated at the Little White House following a heart attack, finding in Key West the same restorative warmth that had drawn Truman. The house quietly accumulated presidential history -- a place where the machinery of American power operated in shirtsleeves and sea breezes rather than suits and marble halls.

After Truman left office in 1953, the Little White House continued to serve various government functions. On January 1, 1987, the property was deeded to the State of Florida, to be held in trust as a public museum. In 1990, nearly a million dollars was spent restoring the house to its 1949 appearance -- the peak of Truman's visits, when the building was at the center of American governance. The museum opened in 1991 as a state historic site. As recently as January 2005, former President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton spent a weekend relaxing at the property, continuing the tradition of presidents and political figures finding refuge in this unassuming wooden house at the edge of the continental United States.