Key West

The possibility of Florida producing its first U.S. president in the current political season is suspended along with the campaigns of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Florida is one of a handful of “swing states” that helps to determine the outcome of our presidential elections. In recent decades, Florida’s 29 Electoral College votes have gone to both Democratic and Republican candidates, making the difference between victory and defeat for both political parties in national races for president.

As important as Florida has become to our presidential election process, there has never been a president, or even a vice-president, from Florida.

“Florida is the largest state in the Union to have never had a president,” says James C. Clark, author of the book Presidents in Florida: How the Presidents Have Shaped Florida and How Florida Has Influenced the Presidents. “Not only have we not ever had a president or a vice-president, we’ve never even had a nominee.”

Florida was a Spanish colony from 1565 to 1763. During the American Revolution, Florida was under British control and remained loyal to the king, while colonies to the north sought independence. By the time George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States in 1789, Florida was again under Spanish control.

In 1821, future president Andrew Jackson oversaw Florida’s transition from a Spanish colony to a United States Territory.

“Andrew Jackson comes mainly to fight Indians, and then becomes the Territorial Governor briefly, after Florida was acquired by the United States,” says Clark. “Future president Zachary Taylor comes to fight Indians in the Seminole Wars. Then Teddy Roosevelt comes on his way to Cuba [in 1898, to fight in the Spanish-American War]. So, in a way, three people have their presidential careers launched in Florida, even though none of them are from Florida.”

Chester A. Arthur was the first sitting president to come to Florida. In the 1880s, he enjoyed fishing at Reedy Creek. Eighty years later, Walt Disney would buy that property to create his Florida theme parks.

In the twentieth century, all U.S. presidents come to Florida, and some make the state their second home while in office.

Harry S. Truman spent so much time in his Key West home that it became known as “The Little White House.” John F. Kennedy wrote his book Profiles in Courage and his presidential inaugural address from his family home in Palm Beach. The Bush family, which includes two U.S. presidents, has vacationed regularly in Florida since George H.W. Bush was a child.

Senator George Smathers was a prominent figure in Florida and national politics. Early in the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, rumors circulated that he might appoint Smathers as attorney general. Smathers was waiting on a call from Nixon, expecting a job offer.

When the call from Nixon came, it was not what Smathers had hoped.

“When Nixon called, he asked if he would sell him his home in Key Biscayne,” says Clark. “Smathers said ‘yes’ and it became the Key Biscayne White House. Richard Nixon was there the weekend that the Watergate burglary took place.”

The burglary of the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. led to the resignation of Nixon as president. It was during a press conference from the Contemporary Hotel at Walt Disney World that Nixon gave his infamous “I am not a crook” speech on November 18, 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal.

As terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was reading to elementary school students in Sarasota, Florida.

Before becoming president in 1921, Warren G. Harding was a frequent visitor to Brevard County. Less than a month before being sworn in, Harding’s yacht Victoria was stuck for two days as he attempted to sail past Titusville on the way to Merritt Island.

“At one point, Harding got bored on the boat,” says Clark. “He rode ashore, took a taxi cab for a ride around, just to see what was happening, came back to the dock in Titusville, bought some mullet, and took it back to the ship for dinner. Can you imagine that happening today?”

Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899, published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. He was living in Paris with the first of his four wives, Hadley Richardson. Hemingway divorced Richardson the following year.

Writer John Dos Passos suggested to Hemingway that he might enjoy Key West, Florida, and in March 1928, Hemingway visited the island for the first time.

“He fell in love with Key West, the lifestyle, the fishing, of course,” says Dave Gonzales, director at the Ernest Hemingway House and Museum. “He kept coming back to Key West over the next two years. He’d invite his friends from the ‘Lost Generation.’ John Dos Passos came down, (artist) Waldo Peirce, (writer) F. Scott Fitzgerald, and they’d come down for fishing trips in the spring mostly, but Hemingway would spend four to six months out of the next two years here.”

When Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, found the home that the couple would move in to, it was boarded up and abandoned, but she could see it’s potential. The property was on the highest point in Key West, across the street from the island’s lighthouse.

“They bought this home in 1931, for $8,000 in back taxes, and still today, it’s the largest residential piece of property on this island,” says Gonzales. “We’re a full acre with very lush tropical gardens. The mansion was originally built in 1851 by Asa Tift, a wealthy shipwreck and salvaging merchant.”

Ernest Hemingway lived in the home until 1939. He was very productive while is Key West. As early as his first visit in 1928, the writer put the finishing touches on his book A Farewell to Arms. While living in the home that is now the Hemingway Museum, the author wrote the novel To Have and Have Not, the nonfiction book Green Hills of Africa, and short stories “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

The Ernest Hemingway House and Museum property is famous for its population of polydactyl, or six-toed cats. The cats at the museum today are “living history” in a sense, as they are direct descendants of Hemingway’s own cats.

The six-toed cats were preferred by the captains of wooden clipper ships, as the extra digit was thought to aid in the capture of rodents. “They also were believed to have mystical and magical powers,” says Gonzales. “They were believed to give ship’s captains calm seas, prevailing winds, safe passages on their journeys.”

Hemingway was inspired by the folklore legend to begin collecting the polydactyl cats. A photo in the dining room of the Hemingway House and Museum shows the writer’s sons Gregory and Patrick holding Snowball, the first of the family’s six-toed cats.

About 50 cats lived on the property while Hemingway lived there, and the same number is maintained at the museum today.

In 1937, while Hemingway was away covering the Spanish American War, Pauline decided to install what was the largest residential pool in south Florida. The pool cost $20,000, when the entire estate had been purchased for $8,000.

Hemingway was so angry about the cost of the pool that he threw a penny at Pauline, telling her that she might as well take his last cent.

“She picked up the penny, and imbedded it into the wet cement where it still remains today,” says Gonzales. “It’s a 1934 D copper penny and the last pocket it was in was Ernest Hemingway’s.”

In addition to being appreciated for his concise and direct writing style, Hemingway was known for his fondness for drinking to excess. His favorite bar was Sloppy Joes. The urinal from the original Sloppy Joe’s Bar is in the yard at the Ernest Hemingway House and Museum.

After a night of drinking, Hemingway and “Sloppy Joe” Russell hand carried the urinal to Hemingway’s home. They placed it next to Pauline’s pool, where it still serves as the water bowl for the family’s cats.

In 1939 Hemingway moved from Key West to Cuba, leaving his second wife and children behind. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, following the publication of his novel The Old Man and the Sea. The author committed suicide in 1961 at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.

Some of the world’s most powerful leaders have made important decisions while staying in a relatively modest residence in Key West, Florida.

Seven Presidents of the United States have stayed at the Harry S. Truman Little White House. The home bears Truman’s name because he was the one who most fully utilized the facility while in office, spending nearly six months of his presidency in his second home.

“It’s somewhat unique,” says Robert Wolz, executive director of the Harry S. Truman Little White House Museum. “The only location quite similar would be Camp David,” the presidential retreat in Frederick County, Maryland.

Truman’s presidency saw the end of World War II with the use of atomic weapons on Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the start of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and the racial integration of the military and federal agencies.

The Little White House was more than just a vacation retreat for President Truman. While working in Key West, he signed documents that would advance civil rights, help lead to the creation of Israel, and result in the firing of General Douglas McArthur.

“They were literally running the country from Key West, Florida,” says Wolz. “He actually was enacting legislation from this site. It all reads ‘The White House, U.S. Naval Station, Key West, Florida.’ So, Harry Truman is our first president to realize that where the president is, there the White House is.”

The home was originally constructed in 1890, as a Navy Officer’s residence.

The first president to stay at the house was William Howard Taft, in 1912. “Taft came via Flagler’s railroad and then sailed from Key West to Panama to see the building of the canal,” says Wolz. “He was very instrumental in the building of the Panama Canal, making eight trips here as Secretary of War, and then as President of the United States.”

In addition to Taft and Truman, U.S. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, James E. Carter, and William Jefferson Clinton have stayed at the Little White House.

Key West is closer to Cuba than to most of Florida. John F. Kennedy spent time at the Little White House during a crucial period in U.S. history, when tensions with Cuba were at their height.

Kennedy first came to the Little White House in March 1961, just 23 days before the U.S. led invasion of Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs. “Russian missiles were discovered in Cuba, and Key West became an armed camp overnight,” Wolz says. “Tourism died, and even after the crisis passed, tourists did not return.” In November 1962, Kennedy visited Key West again, to demonstrate to potential tourists that it was safe to return to the island.

When the U.S. Navy switched from diesel submarines to nuclear submarines in 1974, the Naval Base at Key West was closed. The new nuclear subs were too large for Key West harbor. A private developer purchased the property following the base closure, and it sat unused and deteriorating for twelve years.

The house came under state ownership in 1987, thanks to the efforts of then Governor Bob Graham.

Since 1990, the Harry S. Truman Little White House has been open 365 days a year, offering guided tours. Details such as the magazines on coffee tables, the prints on walls, and glasses behind the bar, make walking through the Little White House like stepping back in time to 1949. Almost all of the articles in the home are genuine artifacts from the Truman presidency.

“Probably the most iconic items would be the president’s poker table that was made as a gift for him from the Navy cabinet shop, and also the president’s piano and presidential desk where he ran the country,” Wolz says. “These are important things that people seek out when they’re touring the house.”

The house itself is an authentic American artifact.

“Visitors, especially our international visitors, are always surprised at how homey and ordinary it is,” says Wolz. “It is not glitzy. It’s certainly not Washington, and it’s certainly not Versailles or any of the palaces that the rest of the world expects from their leadership.”

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

No, this is not a quote from Ernest Hemingway. That aphorism is from late 18^th and early 19^th century English cleric Charles Caleb Colton, but it does reflect the spirit of the Hemingway Days celebration.

For the past week, the 34^th Annual Hemingway Days Festival has been held in Key West, with a “Hemingway in Key West” exhibit at the Custom House Museum, a Marlin Fishing Tournament, an evening of readings and presentations by local authors, a Caribbean Street Fair, an arm wrestling championship, a unique “bull run,” and other events.

The winners of the Hemingway Short Story Competition are announced, and more than $120,000 is raised for nursing, poetry, and journalism scholarships in memory of writer Ernest Hemingway.

The focal point of the annual celebration is the Sloppy Joe’s “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest. Prior to the festivities, dozens of finalists are selected from hundreds of applicants, nearly all of whom have white hair and matching beards. Through a series of eliminations before rowdy crowds at Hemingway’s old watering hole, Sloppy Joe’s, a single winner is selected.

Melbourne resident Dave Wallace, who says he has always admired Hemingway, was one of the selected finalists this year. “I’ve met several people from New Orleans, from Pennsylvania, from New York, Ohio, and one from Palm Bay. When I tell people I’m from Melbourne they say ‘Australia?’ Apparently there are people who have traveled from all over the world to be here.”

While this year’s competition is the first for Dave Wallace, Melbourne resident Hank Wielgosz has been participating in the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest for 21 years and has been a finalist 11 times. This year was the first time Wielgosz moved forward in the competition beyond the first round of eliminations, and he was presented with a special recognition, the Jean “John” Klausing Memorial Award, named for the late owner of Sloppy Joe’s.

“The John Klausing Award means more,” than the contest Wielgosz says, “because it came from the original manager’s wife and that’s a great connection. We’ve met a lot of the folks who work here and we’ve had a great time with all of them.”

Known for his concise and direct writing style, Ernest Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, following the publication of his novel “The Old Man and the Sea.” After completing his service as an ambulance driver in World War I, Hemingway worked as a foreign correspondent in Paris. His first novel “The Sun Also Rises” was published in 1926, when Hemingway was 27. In 1927, Hemingway divorced his first wife Hadley Richardson, and married Pauline Pfieffer.

Ernest Hemingway first came to Key West in 1928, and returned several times over the next couple of years, primarily for fishing trips that would sometimes last months. He would bring other writers with him on these trips, including John Dos Passos and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In 1931, Hemingway and his wife Pauline bought what is still the largest residential property on the island, where they lived together until 1939. Dave Gonzales, Events Coordinator for the Hemingway House and Museum, says that Hemingway was more productive in Key West than anywhere else.

“This was his first writing studio, the secondary building in the rear of the main mansion. Prior to this time he wrote on table tops, bar counter tops, kitchen tops, coffee tables, wherever he could find a smooth surface to write.”

While living in Key West, Hemingway wrote the novel “To Have and Have Not,” the non-fiction book “Green Hills of Africa,” and the short stories “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Most of the participants in the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest are not that concerned about who actually wins.

“They say that for us 45 first timers, it’s difficult to win your first time,” says Dave Wallace. Contest veteran Hank Wielgosz says, “It’s like a club. This is the only time we see a lot of these people and they’re all interesting guys,” adding that “it’s just fun participating.”

As Ernest Hemingway said, “When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.”

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.