Section 2.4: Presidential Getaways, Literary Legends & Key West’s Hidden Depths

The Harry S. Truman Little White House in Key West — once a presidential retreat, now a museum filled with American history.

If visitors are intent on following Flagler’s railroad path along the Overseas Highway, President Truman also maintained a beloved home in Key West, called the “Little White House” because he ran the country from that home during his visits. Now open as a museum, it joins a host of historical sites in the southernmost city, including The Hemingway Home & Museum, where Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway penned some of his masterpieces. Visitors can explore the office where Hemingway worked and set eyes on the island’s first in-ground swimming pool. 

Fun Fact with Marina the Manatee!
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Also in Key West, among an array of treasures, visitors will find the San Carlos Institute, where Cuban poet and patriot Jose Marti, who was a frequent visitor to the area, planned Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain. The Institute, located on Duval Street, is today a museum featuring a permanent Marti exhibit. It joins such sites of local history as the Oldest House Museum Key West and the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center in Islamorada. 

Aerial view of Fort Jefferson, located in the remote Dry Tortugas National Park, 79 miles offshore from Key West. Photo by Patrick Farrell, courtesy of VISIT FLORIDA.

About 79 miles offshore from Key West is the remote Dry Tortugas National Park, accessible only by seaplane or boat and home to the magnificent Fort Jefferson, largest all-masonry in the U.S., which was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the nation’s gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.