PRICE REDUCTION - 611 Southard Street #5, Key West Florida

Years ago, when I owned what was then called Eaton Lodge (guest house on Eaton Street in Key West), a potential visitor called to inquire about making reservations. She asked "Is the island surrounded by water?"

A few weeks ago I wrote 611 Southard Street #5  located at the Hollinshed House Condominiums just one block from Duval Street in Key West. The unit has a highly desired transient rental license which means the unit can be rented nightly without any limitation as to the number of days or weeks that a vacationer might want to spend. The original list price was $525,000. The unit just had an $85,000 price reduction. Now it is priced at $440,000  or more than a 16% lower than the original price. I think this creates a real buying opportunity for a buyer who wants a place in Key West that he or she or they can come visit but that can also earn enough money to pay for itself through legal vacation rentals. The city is cracking down on illegal rentals and imposing extremely high fines to owners who violate rental laws.

This historic eyebrow house was built circa 1874. If you look up a the windows at the top of the house you will understand how the term eyebrow house came to be used to describe homes like this. These old homes were built before air conditioning and even electricity came into use. Back in the old days, houses were cooled through the use of natural ventilation and shading. Windows and doors were left open to allow breezes to flow through the home. The roof overhung the third rooms in this eyebrow house which allowed the windows to remain open in rainstorms. The photo below shows the inside of this unit with the windows shut. Today this space is air conditioned. The charm of the old house gleams through the painted Dade County Pine walls and ceiling. Guests who stay here step back into time just a bit. They pick places like this for a reason - they don't want to stay in a Motel 6 or a Hilton. They want character.

The Hollinshed House Condominiums are located at the tip-top of Solaris Hill in Old Town Key West. The main living area is the top floor of the of the original house. The old building was expanded years ago where the bedroom and bathroom exist just beyond the door at the rear of the kitchen. There is a small balcony off the sitting area at the livng room which is actually the rear fire escape. The views up there are great and totally private. The entrance is located at the top of the two story wrap-around balcony.

Three additional units are located next door at 609 Southard Street. The property has a nice pool in the large courtyard. There are two off street parking spots available on a first come basis. There is also a coin operated laundry for guests.

I just did a quick search of active transient licensed one bedroom condominiums in the Old Town (including Truman Annex) area and found there are six units with an average square footage of 432 1/2 sq ft. The average list price is $485,750.  The average price per sq ft of all units is $1,329. The Hollinshed unit is offered at $652 per sq ft. Three of the units do not have a pool.  The Truman Annex unit is restricted to 25 weekly transient rentals.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet and listing photos of 611 Southard Street #5. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me help you find your place in Paradise. And, yes, Key West is surrounded by water. That's why it is called an island.

621 Catholic Lane, Key West ~ Charming Wooden Cottage with an Historic Past

Just Listed 621 Catholic Lane, a charming wooden cottage located near the "dead end" of one of the slowest lanes in Key West. The lane is entered off Angela Street, itself a one-way street from heading west from Frances Street to Margaret abutting the Key West cemetery to the south.

This simple home was once owned by author Evan Rhodes (The Prince of Central Park among others). I found a photo of Rhodes and other Key West writers taken at Higgs Beach in 1984, the first year I came to this island that would become my home. I borrowed the photo from the Key West Literary Seminar.

From top left: James Merrill, Evan Rhodes, Edward Hower, Alison Lurie, Shel Silverstein, Bill Manville, Joseph Lash, Arnold Sundgaard, John Williams, Richard Wilbur, Jim Boatwright. From bottom left: Susan Nadler, Thomas McGuane, William Wright, John Ciardi, David Kaufelt, Philip Caputo, Philip Burton, John Malcolm Brinnin.

Of this photo Arlo Haskle wrote:

"How many words is a picture worth if its subjects have penned more than many thousands of bestselling words apiece, already read by tens of thousands of readers? If in their beach bags are five Pulitzer Prizes, a few National Book Awards, two Bollingen Prizes, and office stationery from the U.S. Poet Laureate?"

In researching this house I found reference that Rhodes "finds he writes best in the garden of his house, wearing a bathing suit." As I was taking photos yesterday, I figured out why that was. The house does not have central air. The current owner relies on natural cooling (doors opened for cross ventilation). The heat yesterday was sweltering. The shade under the large canopy trees in the garden would provide cool relief for anyone be they a writer or not.

I have sold the homes of two famous writers, John Hersey (Hiroshima, A Bell for Adano) at the Key West Writer's Compound and James Leo Herlihy (The Midnight Cowboy) on Bakers Lane. There is something different yet common about homes where writers lived - they are set apart from the rest of the world and they are simple homes with quiet spaces where they can reflect and create. Tourists won't likely find this house, there isn't even a street sign to identify its existence. 

I found the above photo of 621 Catholic Lane which was taken a little over 50 years ago. The home sits high above the ground. The four front posts supporting the roof and the louvered door and windows and been replaced. The old aluminum awing was taken down. New thinner posts with balustrade were added as were pediments above the windows. The most striking feature is the bougainvillea hedge that insulates the house from public view. A new owner might consider taking that down to reveal how striking a home this place is.

The front door opens into a warm and inviting center hall that leads to the great room at the rear, the office to the left, and the master bedroom to the right. Dade County Pine and newer wood are evident throughout the house. While the house has been updated, the character of the original house still remains.

The great room has this big vaulted ceiling which adds so much dimension to this living space. The rear opens out to covered porches on either side which expand the living are greatly.

The first room I went into after I entered the house was the office. What an interesting place this is. Even though Mr. Rhodes preferred the outdoors, I could imagine this space to be a great place to read or write the next Great American Novel.

French doors open out from the ground floor master bedroom onto the front porch. Another set of louvered doors provide privacy from street view although I don't think anyone could see through the dense bougainvillea even if they tried.  Still it's nice to have the privacy in this little cocoon of a bedroom. The bath is located behind the closed door.

I assume a prior owner converted the attic space into a second floor bedroom and bath. A skylight floods the stairway with light and also introduces light to the great room below. A dormer was also added as were two rear second floor balconies. Our Historic Architectural Review Commission might not not allow a skylight or a dormer to be installed today. (They don't allow a lot of things that made Key West so eclectic and so interesting.) I snapped a photo of the guest cottage of the house next door. The views from the balcony are really sweet. Once you see this home, you'll understand why people choose places like this live. They are charming, quiet, and cozy.

621 Catholic Lane first appeared on the Historic Sanborn Fire Map of 1889. The house was not given a street numerator until 1912 when the street was still known as Fiat Ct. I was not able to find out when the street name was changed to Catholic Lane. Today there is not even a street sign to let passers-by that the street even has a name.

The house has 1542 sq ft interior living space under interior roof plus substantial covered outdoor space in front and rear. The current owner told me a previous owner added the rear porch. Most of the renovations look to have been added sometime after 1984 when Evan Rhodes sold the home to the prior owner. A new owner could leave this home as is and move in the day after closing. Or maybe a new owner might do something to recreate the interiors and re-work the back porch. I think this space could be magical. The lot measures 50.25' X 94.25' (4736 sq ft) which is quite large for Old Town. Much of rear lot is covered with brick. But it is the huge canopy tree with abundant shades that makes this space so interesting. A new owner might be able to obtain permission to add a pool. CLICK HERE to view more photos of the house and this pretty lane. You really need to look at these photos.

Located across Catholic Lane

621 Catholic Lane is offered for sale at $950,000 by Preferred Properties, that's where I work but this is not my listing. CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on this home. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a private showing of this special home. I am a buyers agent and full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

There is No More Officer Goody

Just about a year ago this week I traveled back to Denver to attend my 50th high school reunion. Earlier in the day I went to what used to be Mountain View Elementary School located in the little town where my view of the world was born.  I attended school there from pre-school through sixth grade. My first grade class was the first to use the newly built addition to the right of the original red brick school house. I was a member of the baby boomer generation, but we wouldn't know about that then. Millions of us were born after World War II. We were the progeny of what Tom Brokaw calls the The Greatest Generation. The world would be our oyster.

As the population of Mountain View grew older and the number of school age children declined, my old school was sold to a private company which now operates it as the Re-Create Academy. She young Latino manager allowed me to wander through the school to try to find my past. I took a lot of photos and tried to recalled the teachers, kids, and events from over sixty years ago. I wrote an earlier blog about my lying to my kindergarten teacher, Miss Godley. That was her real name and it fit her perfectly. She was such a kind and gentle person. She knew and I knew that I misbehaved and that I lied to her. The morning after my transgression she told the class someone in the class had misbehaved but she did not say who. I looked around with the other kids as we all tried to figure out who the bad boy or bad girl was. What a little imp I was. But she never told anybody in my class. She made me live with my shame for sixty-plus years.

I went from classroom to classroom taking photos as I tried to recall the names of each teacher. That did not happen and much of my memory is gone forevermore. But when I reached the cafeteria-auditorium my brain went into overdrive. I won't bother you with those stories but one stands out which is why I am writing today's blog.

The floors and the chairs in the cafeteria are new but the memories of mystery meat lunches, school plays, assemblies, Cub Scout Troop meetings, and so on will last forever including the time we got to meet Office Goody.

One day a policeman named Officer Goody came to our school to meet the kids. Now I don't know if that was his real name or not, but I will never-ever forget his name or the kind manner he had with us children. I knew that if ever I needed help that he or some other nice policeman like him would be there to help me. I seriously doubt he had a gun or even a baton. All I remember is his kind demeanor and his name.

I moved away from my little town which was only two blocks long and six blocks wide. We moved to Lakewood located about two or three miles away. Lakewood was not an incorporated city then. We relied on Jefferson County Sheriff officers if we needed a police. But we didn't need them because we didn't have crime. Ours was a homogeneous community of white people. There were restricted areas which did not allow people of color to live. I mention this because as a child I knew I only knew white people. I did not know there were laws to keep non-whites from living where we lived. Denver also had areas where homosexual couples could not live. Even as a young adult lawyer I could not buy a house in the southeast Denver neighborhood called Crestmoor.  I made an offer on a house on the street below which I visited on my trip last year. I remember my real estate agent telling me I could not buy there. I did not get the house. I visited the Crestmoor area on my trip last year and wondered what my life might have been like had I lived on that house and on that street. Those restrictive housing rules were struck down years ago. But I can tell you they still exist in the minds of many.

In college I participated in peace marches and civil right marches. In October 1968 I went to the state capitol to take movies of George Wallace who was running for President. People started getting riled up over Wallace's comments and skirmishes erupted. There wasn't any violence, but hotheads were being hotheads. The cops responded with force. I started to take movies and a cop came right at me and ordered me to stop filming. I did. I was no hero. I was a spineless wimp. In August I attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  I went to the Conrad Hilton Hotel on the night of the police riot looking for my friend Annette. I could smell tear gas and vomit for a couple of blocks before I got to the hotel. And when I arrived I saw kids my age walking around with blood soaked bandages on their heads. This was my wake-up call that there were no more Officer Goody's left in this world. Certainly none in Chicago.

Kent State happened two years later. National guardsmen shot and killed four unarmed college students and wounded nine others. LAW AND ORDER became the mantra. Politicians seized on the need to restore law and order. Lines were drawn. People that play by the rules have nothing to fear. Those that don't do.

 I was in my first year of law school when Kent State occurred. I think most people of my generation were outraged over our government taking aim at and killing innocent people. Some dimwit at Colorado State University (my undergraduate school) burned down Old Main - presumably to protest Kent State. That was forty-six years ago. I have learned that the world is full of dimwits. They come in all colors and have all kinds of crazy ideas about world order. I am weary of anybody who professes to know everything and knows how to fix anything. These people are dangerous whether they are on center stage or are lurking in the background.

I woke up this morning and watched the news. Combat Police dressed like those pictured above were charging at a group of protesters upset with the slew of police shootings of black people. Is there no wonder that our character as a people has changed? Those cops would scare anybody. That's why they are dressed like that.

I know we can't and won't go back to the time when cops looked like this Norman Rockwell policeman. But that should not stop us from trying. What you see is what you get.