The black and white photo at the top shows the Trujillo Grocery as it appeared about fifty years ago. The simple wood building was located at the corner of Windsor Lane and Olivia Street (800 Olivia Street) in Old Town. Most of the homes in this area where vernacular like this building, but others were cigar maker cottages and some two story grand conchs. The Trujillo Grocery building was razed and replaced a couple of decades ago by a new 4167 square foot concrete block structure. The cute and quirky wood frame structure was was replaced by big and efficient concrete box. The Trujillo Grocery business continues to operate at the same location today. Ronny Bailey's recently completed folk art piece shown in today's blog is an artistic tribute to a part of Key West that once was.
Each of Ronny's projects involves sourcing of materials to replicate the original buildings. On this piece Ronny used salvaged Dade County Pine wood which he ripped into small pieces which resembled original planks which he assembled to create a physical structure He builds the tiny structures using the same kind of framing and building techniques used in the real houses. The patina on the wood is the result of careful selection of used lumber with real paint that peeled away after decades of exposure to the sun and rain in Key West. This particular piece of art incorporates a new skill Ronny developed. Ronny told me he had to figure out how to bend actual salvaged metal roof to simulate the "crimp" portion of a genuine V crimp roof. He found a nicely rusted sheet of old metal roofing, perfectly bent it multiple times, and then secured it in place. Prior to perfecting the use of real metal roofing, Ronny would paint a wood roof to look like metal.
You can view the Trujillo Grocery artwork in person January 27 and 28 at the 33rd Annual Key West Craft Show (free to attend). Location Whitehead at Caroline Street 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Go meet Ronny. You could save yourself thousands and thousands of dollars if you buy one of his tiny houses. Of course, you will be denying me the opportunity to sell you a place you could actually call your home.