Just Listed: 522 Elizabeth Street, Key West, Fl

I have been waiting for a long time to see 522 Elizabeth Street, Key West listed for sale. The day has arrived. I got a chance to take a look earlier today. This is a project house - a major renovation. It will require a buyer with great imagination and deep pockets. The reward will be substantial. This will once again be a beautiful home in a great Old Town location.

I searched around in my old shoebox and found a photo of the same property that was taken nearly sixty-two years ago. The black and white photo shows the second floor front porch was partially enclosed even back then. If you look carefully you will see that the house was wider than deep. Later owners would extend the main floor toward the rear. Also note the sprig of a tree that would later engulf the house.

Today the trees overwhelm the house. I believe, but cannot guarantee, a new owner could remove the trees in front and rear of this property. That would make the other renovations both easier to accomplish and enhance the facade and allow for the creation of a rear garden and pool. 

I looked around the inside of the house as best I could. The place does not have electricity and I decided not to venture into dark rooms. The MLS photos show most of the rooms. The listing shows the house has 3,259 Sq Ft of living space plus porches and decks. The lot measures 44'X 102' or 4,359 Sq Ft.  The Monroe County Property Appraiser map shows the house as sitting on or over the south border of the adjacent property to the south. The listing agent told me a new survey is being completed and will be available to potential buyers for review. I have a suggestion:remove all trees; lift the house and move it to the north and place on new piers. This house is located in the X Flood Zone. The garage would probably go away but the property would have better street appeal if the driveway was bricked. I found a photo I took of this property in 2010.  It looked better then.We all did.

CLICK HERE to view more photos I took of this property. The rear yard is a mess. That is easy to clean up. When the trees are removed you will have a clean slate with which to create your own perfect garden and pool The house itself seems structurally sound which should allow for the removal of current non-load bearing walls and the restructuring of room sizes and usage. An interior staircase will need to be added. But there are multiple locations to choose from. (Staircase in photo goes to third floor loft bedroom.)

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet for 522 Elizabeth Street, Key West, offered at $1,555,000. The please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to arrange a private site visit. Bring your contractor, architect, and money-manager to preview this home - one of the last remaining big old houses of Key West. 

I drove by the house on Southard Street where Charlie Brown and the gang reigned supreme for the past several Christmas seasons. The house was sold this year and Charlie is nowhere to be seen. ALAS...

Happy Thanksgiving 2021

I found this photo of Thanksgiving celebration in Key West dated 1954. The first thing I saw was the turkey, then the ham, and then the lady on the far left with a cocktail glass in her right hand with left arm raised and index finger pointed. The woman next to her copies her pose as if making some secret Key West salute. All of the other mothers have their arms raised holding cocktails as well. I saw the hot plate and the over-sized pots. I remembered the lunch ladies in my grade school cafeteria and the aroma of mystery meat. They are all drinking alcohol. Look at all the booze! Lots of it. This was not a school function. And these are not lunch ladies. 

Of course this is not a school. Look at all of the switches on the wall and all of the light fixtures behind the women. This must be a light store or hardware store. I looked in my shoebox and found phots of two electric stores in Key West in the 1950s. The first is 504 Angela located across from my office. It is now a bar. The lower photo is 215 Duval Street. It later became and still is Shorty's. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all the lunch ladies, drinkers, non-drinkers, recovering drinkers and potential customers! 

Key West Real Estate Trivia No. 3 Updated

Where is this?

Come back tomorrow for the answer.

I took this photo in 1986 or 1987.

As an aside HARC does not allow owners in Old Town to add dormers to their homes. This property was built prior to 1889 with the dormers.

The answer is 600 Fleming Street, Key West. It has been many things over the years including...

The site of Fausto's Grocery and a survivor of the October 1944 hurricane.

A greeting place when our boys returned from saving the world.

The Q Rooms in 1987 when the building was purchased for $270,000. It was renovated and became The Marquesa Hotel and Mira - the first restaurant late re-named Cafe Marquesa.

  

513 William Street, Key West

 

513 William Street in an eyebrow house. It is the most beautiful home in all of Key West. And it is for sale. In his book The Street of Key West J. Willis Burke describes the Key West eyebrow house as architectural eccentricity with "windows fitted up high, dropped just beneath the eaves, for shade and to capture the sea breeze and efficiently circulate air within."

I started to take photos of this house in 2006 soon after renovation began. Unfortunately, most of my photos were stored on a defunct website and are lost. Fortunately for the person who buys this home, the owners who did the renovation took a lot of progress photos and gathered historical memoranda that is in an album which will conveyed to the new owner.  The listing Realtor states this home was built in  1845.

513 William Street - 1965

The owners hired Tom Pope as their architect and worked with their interior designer to create the most perfect of perfect homes in Key West. It was and still is, but there was one important thing missing - a real pool and rear gardens. You can't grow ground, but you can buy an adjacent property. 1 Pinder Lane with its 5,500 Sq Ft lot was listed for sale in 2009 and several months later was acquired by the owner of 513 William Street. Mr. Pope and the interior designer went to work and, in collaboration with HARC, created the masterpiece this property is today. Both properties were torn apart and rebuilt. Steel beams were added to William. HARC granted permission to take down all but the façade of of Pinder Lane. Pinder became the guest cottage with garage. A stunning pool and gardens were create.  .

2001

Upon completion the combined homes offer 4.373 Sq Ft of interior living space including five bedrooms, six baths, study, multiple living and entertainment areas, and a captivating pool and garden area. Let's take a look.

I have written before that none of the eyebrow houses are the same. This one certainly is not. The four quadrants off the center stairway include the study first floor right; bedroom and bath left front, second floor bath; and second floor bedroom

Dormers were added at the rear which allowed the introduction of more sunlight into the area. The property is wired for the 21 St Century and has a control center located on this floor as well. I watched in amazement at all the things an owner can do in a faraway place to a house located on a little island at the end of America. 

The rear of the house has only one level. The day I showed he home all of the French doors were open. The summer heat and humidity were gone. The skies were blue and sweet breeze blew the curtains inward. It was magical!

Everything you see in this house is included in the sale price except for two paintings. The furnishings alone cost more than some of our finest homes. The views are priceless.

Remember the guest cottage was newly built The spaces are enchanting, the colors vibrant and subtle, the furnisins inviting, the pool views made me so wish I could live there - forever.

The guest cottage has a smaller sitting area off the main living space. It also has French doors which open out to the pool I climbed the stairs to view the tree-top room with twin beds. I marveled at the colors I would never imagine working. But they did. Then I went down stairs to the large bedroom with cathedral ceiling and French doors that opened to a private tropical garden. This place does not stop.

Serious buyers must experience this home in person. But anyone can watch the YouTube video by clicking below.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 513 William Street, Key West, Florida offered for sale at $6,999,000. Then please text me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to discuss viewing this home. I am a buyers agent and full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. 

1008 Whitehead Street, Key West - New to the Market

 

The listing Realtor describes this deceivingly versatile historic home like this:

"An exceptional opportunity exists to secure this versatile property located a short stroll from all that the world-famous Duval Street has to offer. This charming island-style house pays homage to its history without forgoing the comforts of modern living. The design incorporates a good flow, lots of natural light, timeless finishes, and two comfortable and welcoming bedrooms on the main level. The second story houses another living space with classic features, including decorative ceilings, polished wood floors, a studio kitchen, a private entrance, and an outdoor patio tucked away in the trees. Opportunity awaits for owner-occupiers and investors alike."

1008 Whitehead Street is located a few paces south of Truman Avenue. The Key West Lighthouse is located on the same side of Whitehead Street but north of Truman. This home first appeared on the 1889 Sanborn Fire Map. The 1892 Map omitted a small section of homes in this area. I think it must have been there earlier than 1889 but that is a guess based on what I could find. 

I found a photo of the property taken in 1965 in my old shoebox. The house next door south used to belong to Larry Formica, the founder of LaTeDa. The building to the north is a funeral home today. 

Don't let that spook you. They''re quite. The neighbor to the rear is a huge piece of vacant land. It has value but a lot of restrictions. It may get developed or it may sit vacant for another decade and only grow more valuable. 

The house packs a lot of usable rooms in a somewhat small space. The first floor has two bedrooms on the left followed by the bathroom at the rear which is located opposite the kitchen. You enter into the living room which proceeds to the kitchen. Glass panel doors at the rear allow daytime light to infuse the space with light and open out to the rear deck.

There is more living space accessed by the front gate which leads to the private second floor landing. The read dormer leads to the interior living area which includes bedroom, kitchenette, and bathroom. 

Closets are tucked between the dormer facing Whitehead Street. The bathroom is adjacent on the left. As you can see this little home offers many options for living or as an investment property. It is well located near Duval and tourist attractions. And its cute. Who doesn't like cute?

I came across the "Autobiography of Stephen Moreno Whalton".  Whalton was born in 1872 and grew up just a few paces off Division Street which he said was previously known as Rocky Road. Mr. Whalton further wrote:

"Another event in my life that I have never forgotten happened when I was about seven years old, at that time there were a very few houses on the Southeast side of our Truman Avenue, most of that part of the Island was a wilderness, my grandfather and my father raised quite a number of horses in the woods of Key West, and my grandfather gave me a horse and my father had him broken to harness and saddle, this was a stallion, and somewhat mean. The only time that I was put on his back, was on a Sunday morning, when one of my father’s hired men put me on him without a saddle, as soon as he got out of the yard, he started to run, and I was too small to stop him, there was a man coming up the street who stood with his arms open, but when my horse got near this man, he made a quick turn to go by him, and landed me on a flint rock, I recovered from that accident in about six weeks, but I never had a chance to get even with that horse, as my father sold him before I became old enough to handle him. This was the end of the events of my early childhood, which have remained fresh in my memory down through the years, due of course, to the fact, that they made a great impression on my mind at the time of happening."

Imagine a wild horse running down a dirt road and across the fields and forest in Key West. What a sight that must have been.  Today this area is abuzz with tourists in the daytime as they trek their way to the Hemingway House, the lighthouse, and the Southernmost point. The leave the area by 5:00 to head to Mallory Square, dinner, and night time fun.  CLICK HERE to read Whalton's autobiography. History fans will love it. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet for 1008 Whitehead Street Key West offered for sale at $899,000. Then please text me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. to schedule a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.