Moms house or their grandmothers house or their favorite aunt. It is very humbly first. It is a very subtle, elegant house. The one thing people coming in say i could live here. This feels like my house. So it really is the peoples house in so many ways. It is not a palace by any means. They get it. Harry truman was truly human. Harry truman was one of us. And it certainly wouldve been so out of keeping with his character had they gilded furniture or something. It would have been inconceivable to harry truman to ever have anything like that. West developed as a port city in 1820s, and by the 1880s, and moved more cargo than any other port and florida. Next, we visit the u. S. Customs house in key west were history of the citys role in transatlantic trade. Were standing in the customhouse building in key west, florida. 1891building was built in and was originally used as a u. S. Customs house. Was also used as a federal courthouse building and a post office. Key west was settled in 1822. Thatnment came in later year and established key west as a port city in 1828. So shortly after the original settlement, they recognized the significance of this island. Key west with selected as a port of entry and a lucrative trade market really because of its geographical position. We sit right on the gulf stream so there are a lot of ships traveling by this area. Key west also has a natural deep water port which is essential to having ships come in and out and provide anchorage while they are here to unload. Also, you are at the Halfway Point between new york and galveston, texas, so geographically it was central to a myriad of maritimerelated traffic and practices. The first custom house was corrected almost immediately when the island was established, s own 8023, the first building in the samend it is location that our building is in currently. Originally, it was a woodclad house, a story and a story and half. The property set on the waterfront, so it was very easy to do business with the ships that were arriving. Key west in 1822 was very sparsely populated. There were about 500 people that originally settled. Most were bahamians or had come from new england. The harbor is just outside our building right now. A lot of warehouses were set up along the deep water port to make it easy to get the goods off the ships and get them into warehouses and then packed up again if they were moving along elsewhere. Along the waterfront, it was and aup with warehouses, lot of ship jamborees and other maritime support, so people could buy sailsh their boats, and provisions. Everything was, wooden buildings, and it was very busy, but as soon as you got away from the seaport eric, key west was very desolate. Youre looking at a register of goods that were come into key west during the mid18 or eightentury so this book from 1858 specifically, throughout this book we have received the goods coming in and out of key west where they originated from and where they are headed to if they were not staying in key west. Looks like this give you a good idea of the variety of products coming in. For example, here we have a receipt for Meat Products coming into key west from a merchant in new orleans. Key west getting a delivery of pork and beef and bacon at that time for the residents here in key west. This one is a receipt for cut nails and some oil. Were veryon materials important because key west was growing at a pretty rapid pace at the time. In particular, about this one, a ceipt, one of the wreckers here on the on it. He was in the practice of going out to ship wrecks on the reef here and he would salvage all the materials on there and have a warehouse full of salvaged materials. He was quite a prime player in key west at the time, so that is a neat receipt to see what he is importing. Down here we have just some ineipts from later on century, so the late 19th century, 1895 to be particular, allor from the c. H. M co. , they would bring in passengers and goods, and theres a variety of products that give us an idea of what is being important in key west. Theres a cognac shipment arriving. Here we have a gin shipment arriving. Then from rotterdam, we actually have some tobacco coming in to a person who owned one of the warehousesacturing in key west, so he is receiving a shipment of tobacco. That gives researchers a good idea of where tobacco was coming from, what it cost them, and the volume that was coming in. Ruled that thess building that was standing where we currently are was too small for operations, so they decided they would put up a bid to construct the building we are in now. Construction began soon after 1885, and it was ultimately completed in 1891. It is designed after the architectural style of henry richardson, who built a light of arches, columns, broad front porches, so our building a style that way. We were built to a federal government blueprint. It is similar to other buildings around the country. You can find a similar c ustom house in mississippi. Key west is a woodclad neighborhood. All the houses here are wooden tin roofs. There are short because of the hurricanes, so this building stands out. There are not many houses made of rec or other houses made of rick or other houses made of brick. The slope of the roof is unlike anything else in town. We do stand out. There were other people in the body besides the customs operation, so the government had a courthouse in the building. Islandssso the office, and a little later the white house, the federal the federal Lighthouse Program had offices here. It was the Federal Building on the island. It housed a myriad of people and workers. This was a help in key west for people to come to to get their posts, to get their business, and they were being adjudicated in court, they would have to come by as well. Of the most significant cases that came to this building was the naval inquiry into the e ining of the uss main 1898 after the boat sank in havana. The results were inconclusive. There was an explosion. There were a lot of sailors that died during the explosion. The court could not find any real hard evidence that either the spanish or the cubans had done anything, but there was speculation in the u. S. Media, which took over right away with what potentially had happened to the uss maine. The customhouse building went 1930s. Client in the the customs operations stay hear to the early 20th century. Post Office Facilities were not big enough to sustain the growing population down here, so soon the post office moved out. The lighthouse move that. The courthouse had a building corrected in the was based outng of miami, this building was handed over to the navy for their purposes. Today it is operated by the key west historical society. It needed a full remain renovation in the 1990s, now we operate it is a museum of key west art and history. It is a historical city that is her staying with people and bursting with people and