he thought he was the greatest writer in the world. >> all weekend american history tv is featuring key west, the site of carrie truman's -- harry truman's home, also known as the little white house. harry truman use the house is the winter white house starting in 1946. we recently traveled to explore the city's rich history. learn more about u.s. all weekend on american history tv. ms. convertito: this was originally used as a u.s. customhouse. it was also used as a courthouse building and a post office. key west was originally settled

in 1822. the government established it as a port city in 1828. very shortly after the original settlement they realized the significance of the island. key west was selected as a port of entry and a lucrative trade market really because of its geographic position. there are a lot of ships passing by. key west also has a natural deep water port, which is essential to having ships come in and out and providing anchorage to unload. also we are at the half way point between new york and galveston, texas, so geographically it was central to a myriad of maritime practices. the customs house was erected almost immediately, 1823, i

think, the first holding. and it is in the same location our building is currently. originally, it was just wood clad houses, a story and a half. the property sat on the waterfront, so it was easy to do business with ships that were arriving, and putting goods on and off. key west in 1822 was very sparsely populated. most of these settlers were either bohemians or had come from me new england area. the deepwater harbor is just outside our building right now. it a lot of warehouses set up a long that deepwater port, to make it easy to get the goods off the ship. so long the waterfront was quite built up with warehouses. a lot of maritime support. people could buy new wines for their boats, sales, provisions. a lot of logistical support.

everything was wooden buildings and it was very busy down here, but qs was very delicate. you are looking at a register. this book dates from 1850 specifically and throughout this book we have receipts for goods coming in and out of key west, where they originated from and where they were headed to if they were not paying in key west and books like this give you a really 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 port and beef and bacon at that time for the rest of this year

this one is a receipt for cut nails and construction materials were very important because key west was growing at a rapid pace at this time. in particular, this is one of the records here on the island. he was in the practice of going out to ship wrecks out on the reef and he would salvage the materials and have a warehouse. he was quite a player. down here, we have receipts from later on in the century. the 19th century. 1895 in particular. this is from the ch malory. they had a shipping line between new york and key west.

there's a variety of products. again, this gives us an idea of what is being imported into key west. there is a cognac shipment arriving. here we have a gunin shipment arriving. mr. polaski owned one of the cigar manufacturing warehouses in key west and is receiving a shipment of tobacco. that also gave researchers an idea of where the tobacco was coming from, what it costs, and the volume it was coming in. in 1885 congress ruled the building 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 was ultimately

completed in 1891. it was designed after the architectural style of henry hopkin richardson. he built a lot of columns big, broad front porches. our building is style that way. the building is very similar to other buildings around the country as well. it is not inherent to just key west. other buildings have a similar look to them. key west is very rude clad -- roof clad. this building really stands out. there are not many houses made of brick. they are very tall in comparison to a lot of others down here. the slope of the roof is unlike anything. we do stand out. the federal government had a

courthouse in the building. there was also the island post office was housed here. it really was the federal building on the island. it housed in. of people and workers and this was a hub in key west for people to, do their business, be adjudicated in court. one of the most significant court cases that came through this building was the navy inquiry into the sinking of the uss maine that was held right after the boat sank in havana harbor. the result was inconclusive to a point. there was an explosion. there were a lot of sailors that died during the explosion. the court could not find any hard evidence that either the spanish or the cubans had done

anything, but there was definitely speculation in the u.s. media that took over right away speculating what had happened to the uss maine and havana. at the custom operations stayed here through the early 20th century. post office facilities were not big enough to sustain the growing population, so soon, the post office moved out, the lighthouse moved out. the federal courthouse had a building in the 1930's. this building became much less occupied. that led them to do away with the custom operation here. this building was handed over to the u.s. navy to use for their purposes. today, this building is operated by the key west historic

society. it needed a full renovation. now we operate it as a museum. key west is a very historical city that is bursting with people and places and ideas and businesses and industry. indus really essential that places like this -- and it is really essential that places like this contain history of the architecture on the island. it is telling a story of prior times, earlier days and we were one of the richest cities in the united states. >> all weekend long american history tv is joining our comcast cable par