The Nightmare on Eaton Street, Key West

Do you recognize this Key West location? If you are a local or returning visitor to Key West you probably have walked or driven by it many times. The two buildings in the rear are your clue. If you are a Keywester in your late 70s you might be one of the children.

The dark areas of the map show the breadth of the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1886.

 

I found some photos on the Monroe County Library website which show how the parking lot behind the children came  to be - FIRE. Not the Great Fire of 1886 that destroyed so many homes and buildings but the one that took down the First Baptist Church and torched two homes across Eaton Street. 

 

The ground breaking for the Masonic Temple at 535 Eaton Street in July 1950. Photo by Key West Photo Service.

The Masonic Temple at 535 Eaton Street looked like this before it was taken down to be a hold in the ground to be replaced by concrete block. What a site Eaton Street must have been before man and fire took down such beautiful buildings.

The hurricane of 1944 toppled trees but the beautiful homes and churches on Eaton Street survived.

President Harry Truman and Chief Justice Fred Vinson at the First Baptist Church in Key West C 1950. Jeff Brodhead Collection. You will see the completed building below. Today the building houses The Studios of Key West as well as Judy Blume's bookstore.

A Navy float in a parade passing the Baptist Church at 524 Eaton Street C 1950. Photo by Key West Photo Service.

The photos below show the  former church and the houses on the opposite side of Eaton Street the day after the nightmare on Eaton Street.

The above photo was shot from Bahama Lane looking north toward Eaton Street. The following photos show direct views of BPOE building at corner of Simonton Street and Eaton, 529 Eaton Street (now Carriage Trade Inn), 525 Eaton Street (destroyed home now parking for Simonton Court Guest House), 523 Eaton Street (one of the Simonton Court properties does not appear to show any damage). 

1957 New Church and offices being constructed

The former First Baptist Church was rebuilt using concrete block construction and 1950s architecture. The Scottish Rite Temple looks like pre-World War II design dragged into the post war building boom. Both stand today and would probably defy a fire. They did defy Hurricane Irma in 2017. That is a good thing or bad thing depending on how you feel about mid-century American architecture and concrete block construction. The old wood houses also stand today, about one hundred and fifty years after their construction. The styles and construction materials give us the option to opine in favor of one over the other.

Look backup at the locals surveying the damage to their cultural history. It is no less damaging as when we all watched the fire at Notre Dame. It was personal to them. I may write wise cracks about a lot of things in Key West, but fire is not one of them (even though I did write a wise crack a few lines above). Our little paradise is so vulnerable to fire. It truly is a nightmare.