Key Assets

As General Services Administration Auctioneer John Connolly prepared to call for bids, he voiced a notion that had no doubt occurred to many "conchs," as Key West natives style themselves. "Poor Harry Truman," he said, "is probably turning over in his grave." Reason: the Government was auctioning off 102.3 acres of land, including a 44-acre parcel with 23 historic structures, among them the plain white two-story clapboard residence that Truman loved and made famous as the Little White House.

While President, Truman checked into Quarters A on the now deactivated U.S. naval base for working vacations, during which he sometimes outraged the fastidious and amused the common folk by wearing the gaudiest of Hawaiian- style sport shirts. Quarters A, built in 1890 as a commandant's residence, sits amid palms, banyan, avocado and mango trees by the Gulf of Mexico, where Truman sometimes swam with his spectacles on. The residence and other historic buildings have been shuttered since the Navy shrank its Key West operations in 1974.

The decision to sell the property followed years of vain efforts by the Navy and the City of Key West to agree on a way for the municipality to take it over. The auction provoked widespread local fear that the historic buildings might be sacrificed for high-density developments.

News of the sale stirred worldwide interest, but in the end only twelve serious bidders turned up. The sale soon boiled down to a test of nerves and / money between an organization of native Alaskans and a Boston firm, the Great Bay Co., headed by an American-born Sikh convert named Pritam Singh. Singh's $17.25 million offer closed the sale.

Born Paul LaBombard in Fitchburg, Mass., the turbaned Singh first visited Key West as a 17-year-old hippie before finding his calling in the restoration of old buildings. He quickly dispelled local fears by announcing his intention to renovate, not raze, the complex. "Beauty creates value," said Singh. "I wanted to buy (the property) because of the history. I feel developers have a responsibility to protect that." That news should make it possible for H.S.T. to RIP.