526 William Street #1, Key West - Delancey Hall Condominium

If you have been living on the Internet searching for a place to call your own in Key West, the new listing at 526 William Street may be the place you have been hoping to find. While I expected many new listings around Christmas, that did not happen. This Delancey Hall two bedroom main floor condominium is the exception and is an exceptional one at that. I have written about other units in this building before, and I sold a similar second floor unit several years ago.The building was renovated in the early 2000's by Toolbox Construction, one of the best general contractors in Key West. They consistently do quality projects. This unit has been meticulously maintained. It is move-in ready.

The owners on the first floor share "sitting rights" on that porch and the owners on the second floor share that porch. Both porches are prime perchess for people watching. The first entry is quite dignified and sets the tom for the rest of the building. You enter unit No. 1 intot a hallway that leads past the bedrooms and toward the living area at the rear.  

French doors off the living room open out to the private deck overlooking the shared pool. Entrance to the pool for all other owners is on the north side of the building. This owner steps down from the deck.  I don't think I have ever seen anyone use the pool. Pools are nice to own, relatively inexpensive to maintain, and seldom used by most owners. 

526 William Street No.1 is offered for sale at $1,300,000.  CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and to view more photos. Then please contact 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. 

1316 Whalton Street, Key West

It took twelve years, a lot of lawyers, bankers, Realtors, builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers, landscapers, and a lot of money to create the beautiful home at 1316 Whalton Street, Key West. But it was worth it. Don't you agree?

I first wrote about this property in 2009 when two side by side houses owned by one buyer but financed by two separate banks. The owner offered it as a short sale. The properties were offered for sale but nobody could get a deal worked out with both lenders. Each lender ultimately foreclosed its lien. The larger property at 1316 Whalton Street sold first. Both houses were in total disrepair. The swimming pool was a hazard. Both houses were taken down. 

The foreclosure on the adjacent lot dragged on. Then the new owner put the small lot on the market. Building code would have made construction of a new stand alone single family house impossible. But the lot itself gave the abutting owners an opportunity to buy the lot and further develop their parcel. The owner to the south bought the lot and built a guest cottage addition.

They finished the cottage, put up the fence, installed new landscaping, and created one of the prettiest homes in the already beautiful Casa Marina Area. That is a Royal Poinciana Tree on the property line. These trees blossom in May and June and make our little piece of Paradise even prettier.

It is not for sale. 

 

708 White Street, Key West

I attended a roving broker's open house event late Wednesday afternoon at a several locations in the Old Town and Casa Marina Areas in Key West including the beautiful home pictured above at 708 White Street. I recall having been in this home during a Sunday open house just after it was built in 2005.  But I had no real recollection of what the house looked like so yesterday's event made it all new for me. Key West is known for its historic homes. This is new construction which does not copy existing homes. Instead has its own classic aesthetic exterior which features first and second story porches, verandas, and decks. There is a white picket fence and bricked off street parking for at least two cars.

This is a very large house by Key West standards - 4598 square feet divided between two floors. You enter the home in a foyer with doors on either side going into a main floor study or guest bedroom as it has a full bath and the dining room located opposite. You move further into the living room on the left rear which has a 24 ft ceiling. You will look to the right to see an expansive kitchen with breakfast bar plus an adjacent informal dining area. You pause, look up at the ceiling in the kitchen and entry and realize they are 10 ft high. 

The study is located to the left side of the foyer. The formal dining room is located opposite. Brazilian cherry floors, plantation shutters, and tray ceilings are among the features used throughout the house.

There are first and second floor master suites plus additional guest bedrooms on the second floor. Both master suites are very large. The first floor bedroom has doors which open out to the pool. The second floor doors open out onto a covery balcony overlooking the pool and gardens below.

This home has four bedrooms with en-suite baths and walk-in closets plus additional storage. There are first and second floor laundries plus utility room.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos for 708 White Street, Key West offered for sale at $3,595,000. 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. This is a very well built and appointed home that has been meticulously maintained.  It is move-in ready.

Two Presidents in Key West

President Trump was in Key West a few weeks ago. I once said I wouldn’t walk across the street to see him even if he came here. But when it was announced that he was coming and would be driving past the block where I live, I did walk to the corner to watch him pass. 

I stood in the glaring sun for twenty or thirty minutes at the corner of Von Phister and White Street. The motorcade turned from Atlantic Boulevard onto White Street and sped towards us at lighting speed. First there were several Key West motorcycle police, then a few black SUVs with flashing lights, and then the Presidential limousine. The limousine sped down White at a breakneck speed as if fleeing from something. A few more SUVs, two ambulances, and maybe one hundred Monroe County Sheriff motorcycle patrolmen followed. Gone and done in sixty seconds or so. What was he fleeing? Why so fast? I am really serious. Why so fast?  These few people on the side of the streets were not going to hurt him.

Contrast that photo which I borrowed off Instagram to the historic photo of President Harry S Truman leaving church service in Key West decades earlier.  Truman was just sitting in a convertible with a pal.

315 Virginia Street, Key West- Just Listed

Just Listed, but not by me, 315 Virginia Street in Key West, Florida.  This home has recently been renovated into a really charming two bedroom two bath with new salt water pool. It is located just two blocks west of Duval Street and within easy walking distance to nearby Ft Zachary Taylor Beach, the Hemingway House, and all of Old Town. I looked in my old shoe box and found  the black and white photo below which shows this home as it appeared about fifty years ago. The color photo below that shows a similar view of the house as it looks today.

The house first appeared on the 1892 Historic Sanborn Fire Maps. Much of the immediate  area was vacant of homes or commercial buildings at that time. In the  "Autobiography of Stephen Moreno Whalton" I found the passage below which speaks about this particular area which Whalton refers to as "the woods":

"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."

Fort Zachary Taylor Beach, Key West

The black and white photo teaches us a bit about the history of this house. The front section with the louver windows and door was the original house. Note the gable roof midway. That was likely a kitchen addition. In earlier times cook houses were not attached to houses because of the threat of fire.  The black and white photo shows a second addition at the rear with a flat or shed roof. Today, the rooms are arranged with the two bedrooms located at the front of the home off the hallway that leads through the house to the living room at the rear. The kitchen is located in that earlier addition, but it looks nothing like it did more than half a century ago.

This newly renovated two bedroom, two bath home has 1026 sq ft of interior living space. It looks sharp and contemporary even though wild horses ran in nearby woods more than a century ago. One more thing, there is a pool in the rear. They didn't have pools in the old days.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on 315 Virginia Street, Key West offered at $1,150,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a private showing. I ama buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. This home is currently used as a monthly vacation rental. Showings are available until March 1st. This could be one of those snooze you lose houses. Best to see it while you can get inside.