1307 Truman Avenue, Key West's Grand Dame

 Just Listed by Preferred Properties Key West, that is where I work but this is not my listing, 1307 Truman Avenue, Key West. The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"A notable Historic Grand Key West Home in the heart Of Old Town with 5 bedrooms and 5.5 baths. Entering you are greeted by 12 ft. ceilings on both the first and second floors. A project spanning 3 years earned the owner a ceramic star for historic renovation. You can easily see the original details of the crown molding, stained glass, and Dade pine wood flooring. Off the foyer there is a front parlor with an adjoining living room and a formal dining room, which are adjacent to a dream Kitchen with Carrera marble countertops, and top of the line appliances. 4 sets of French doors and transom windows reveal a wrap around porch leading to a large pool and expansive yard. New HVAC throughout X Zone. Off Street Parking on Albury St."

Wikipedia describes Grand Dame as "In popular culture, the grande dame is usually portrayed as a slightly flamboyant woman, prone to extravagant and eccentric fashion, such as feather boas, large hats, and excessive costume jewelry. She may be overly pre-occupied with the concept of 'acting ladylike" and expect all those around her to conform to her own high standards of etiquette." This home has a prominence that cannot be denied. The wrap around verandas are her boa; the towering height is her large hat; and the gardens are her costume jewelry. As you look thru the photos below you will understand me referencing this home as a lady. It is dignified, elegant, and properly attired.

I dug down into my old shoebox and found the black and white photo taken half a century ago that photo shows the house before the rear addition was added. You can't see the addition in present day photos as it is hidden behind the white picket fence and privacy foliage. The most notable change was the creation of the third floor open balcony that overlooks Bayview Park across the street. Let's step inside and look around.

Voila - You open the door to another era. This Victorian era home was built in 1906 by cigar factory owner from Cuba. This home has all the character and formality as it did when it was built. There is a grand three story entry hall. The living room is located at the front of the house.  A Victorian era divider provides a bit of separation which allows for two distinct living areas. A similar divider provides a separation from the formal dining room.

For all of its old school formality, the new school of thought is to get a drop dead envy Key West tan laying on a raft in your private pool or sipping pina coladas under the wrap-around veranda. Your friends will hate you when they see the kewl pool views.

Each of the rooms on all three levels of the house (including the third floor) have very tall ceilings, crown molding, and exude a sense of formality we don't see in current architecture. For readers who have been in dozens of Key West Conch houses, this isn't one. This house probably more than any I have seen in Key West imparts the feel of the Victorian Era.

I bet a princess lives in this room. 

 

 

The house sits on two lots which span from Truman Avenue to Albury Street ( 161' X 46.08' or 7418 sq ft). According to the Monroe County  Property Appraiser this home has 3352 sq ft of interior living space plus 1500 sq ft of porches. Bedrooms have 12 ft ceilings. There is a second floor maid's quarters (or guest suite) with a private porch and a view of the stunning pool below.

I found the above postcard from 1900. I noted the location of 1307 Truman Avenue and also show where the Mid-Town suburbs would be built decades later. US 1 (North Roosevelt Blvd) would be created by filling in that body of water at the upper left of the photo. I took the photo below showing the view across Truman Avenue (Division Street in the old photo). This house and this view are so special. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and more listing photos of 1307 Truman Avenue Key West offered for sale at $4,239,000 and then please call 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. 

3529 Sunrise Drive, Key West, Florida

The lovely home at 3529 Sunrise Drive in Key West was built in 1963 and incorporates many of the styles and trends of that era. I pulled out the WayBack machine and recalled these events that occurred in 1963: the Beatles record their first album Please Please Me in a single session; Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique which re-launched the women's movement; General Hospital and The Outer Limits debuted on ABC and My Favorite Martian premiered on CBS, Leave It To Beaver ended - The Beav grew up; Martin Luther King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for parading without a license and later issues his Letter From Birmingham Jail; Gary Thomas saw President John F. Kennedy in Berlin; the US, UK, and USSR signed the nuclear test ban treaty; Martin Luther King delivers his I Have a Dream speech from the Lincoln Memorial; instant replay was used for the first time during the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia; John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and three days later Lee Harvey Oswald was killed on live TV.

Events, styles, trends, fads - they all last for awhile and some impacted our lives for years or decades into the future. When you are young, you tend to live in the moment. As you get older, you learn that not everything in the world revolves around you. As you get much older, you may learn that what you do or say or think is of no consequence to anybody else. When you get even older, you disappear. That's sort of what happens to styles, trends and fads-they get ignored or displaced or even replaced. Styles that were hip become passe.

If you are old enough to remember the 1960s you will recall the space race and the New Frontier. You will remember the forward thinking we embraced. Our TV, our culture, our furniture and home goods, and our architecture reflected the hopes and dreams as aspirations of that time. Some homes built then still have fallout shelters a sad reflection of our mass paranoia of that time.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features found across America in the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. But since the house was built in Key West, it has a large pool, tropically landscaped yard, and parking area for the family boat.

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"Walled for privacy and lined with lush landscaping this oversized corner lot hosts a 5 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home, large pool, several outside covered seating areas and covered parking. Also room to park your boat and located just down the street from the local boat ramp. Inside you will find vaulted ceilings, many rooms with tongue and groove ceilings, over-sized windows, a family room and den. Plenty of room for entertaining both inside and out. Come add your personal touch and have everything you need in Key West living."

This home is Key West suburban living at its best. This home was built by the lifelong resident of this property. It has been lovingly maintained for decades. You enter in to a formal entry which leads to the formal living area with vaulted tongue in groove wood ceiling the follows through to the sunken formal dining room. I showed this home several times a few years ago when the house was for sale. Potential buyers go distracted by the older style furniture and the animal pelts and heads. Those will disappear and a new owner will have free reign to create a new interior pallet.

When the owners updated the kitchen they kept some of the classic features of the past including the rotary phone and wall radio. They bought a new coil cook-top to replace the original. Of course a new owner could put in a new kitchen with white cabinets and stainless steel Viking appliances. You could. But you don't need to. The family room is a step-down from the kitchen. There is a bedroom and bath beyond. The door at the rear opens out to covered under house parking. Glass sliders in  the kitchen and family room open out to the pool and patio.

This 3,378 square foot home has five bedrooms and three baths on multiple levels. It sits on a large 137.5' X 65' corner lot just a few blocks from the eastern end of the Island of Key West. The houses across the street are located on Rivera Canal and sell for a bout a million dollars or more than the asking price of this property. That is because they are located on the canal. There are umpteen other owners in the area who use the nearby boat launch.

CLICK HERE  to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 3529 Sunrise Drive Key West and then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. This home is offered for sale at $1,170,000 or $346 per square foot. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

1100 Southard Street, Key West - Hi Brow Eyebrow

The freshly renovated home at 1100 Southard Street is a testament to the vitality of the Key West real estate market which has thrived and progressed since my first visit in 1984. While preparing to write about today's home, I reached down into my old shoebox and found two photos taken of 1100 Southard Street that demonstrate my thesis.

Just prior to young photographer Authur Rothstein assignment to photograph Key West for the WPA in 1938, Key West had reeled from the devastating loss of the railroad due to the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935, the demise the cigar and sponge industry, and the unknown future of the island upon the completion of the Overseas Highway (now called US1). Rothstein's task was to document the state of life on this little island. One of the houses he photographed was 1100 Southard Street shown above. Study the photo just a bit. Longtime readers know this is an "eyebrow house" given that name to describe the design of the roof extending out from the end of the building to rest upon columns. The projection creates both a porch (a place to sit) and protection for the second floor windows which may be left open during rain and wind storms allowing light and air to flow inside the home. Before we had air conditioning, homes were ventilated by natural air flow and shade trees. Rothstein's photos appear throughout my blog from time to time. We are fortunate that the federal government sent him to the Keys to capture a point in time when life was pretty rough here. Rothstein wrote his supervisor shortly before the Overseas Highway was completed when perhaps thousands of tourists would someday make their way to this little island - "I hope the resulting boom and development doesn’t spoil the picturesque beauty of the island nor make the natives lose their friendliness.”

I found a second photo taken nearly 30 years later showing the same view of 1100 Southard Street. We can see the house has changed a bit. Study and see if you can see the differences. Some aluminum shutter salesman must have made a bundle off Key West in the 1950s because there are still a lot of these old clam shell shutters in existence. This house has aluminum shutters on the west side. Someone added wood louvers to the right side of the front porch as a sun shield. Look to the left side which was extended to the edge of the roof overhang. Both photos show the house is elevated up from the ground and is wood construction with wood siding.  I can't verify the first photo shows louver windows but the 1965 photos certainly do. Glass windows were introduced to the house later. The addition to the front was removed, a pool added, and the place became gentrified each time it was improved. The original eyebrow now has pediments above once louvered windows. It looks quite graceful and definitely hi brow.  The current listing Realtor describes the newly renovated home this way:

"Stunning renovation of this Eyebrow style historic home in an ideal Old Town location. The main house with gorgeous addition and a detached guest cottage couple on each side of the pool to create a spacious 5bd/4ba beauty. Virtually every detail of this property has been restored or renovated to create the perfect combination of modern luxuries and historical character. The open staircase has been restored creating a breathtaking architectural focal point. A gourmet kitchen wrapped in windows begs to entertain the open floor plan overlooking sprawling tropical grounds and pool. A ground level master suite boasts a luxurious bathroom with wet room, walk in closet and a door leading to a private garden area. The list of luxuries goes on and on in this rare and precious Old Town home!"

I had not been inside this house for years and once inside I forgot it was an eyebrow house. It certainly did not look like any eyebrow house I had been in. The main living level is a play on open concept living but still has defined living spaces. 

The master bedroom has a vaulted ceiling which makes the space quite dramatic. Barn doors provide privacy in the bath which is a work of art. A guest bedroom is located opposite the front entry.  Barn doors were placed here as well. This space is used as a study at this time.

One of the challenges owner/renovators of eyebrow houses face is how to create a bathroom or bathrooms on the second floor. These homes did not have indoor plumbing when they were built and did not have bathrooms on the second floor. Some eyebrow houses are larger than others. I had to stop and take a serious look well designed this renovator met the challenge of adding a bath. There are bedrooms on either side of the house. The renovator added a bath at the right front of the second floor. A small hallway leads back a few steps to a bedroom.

There are sunny and shady places to layout and sit around the pool which itself is quite large and very sunny. If I were a guest I might opt to stay in the pool side guest cottage, buy a new door lock, and never leave.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and striking listing photos. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private tour of this newly renovated home which can be purchased fully furnished as shown. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Get ready for some hi brow living in this eyebrow house.