906 White Street, Key West - An Old Town Charmer

I dug down into my old shoe box and found the black and white photo immediately below that shows how 906 White Street looked fifty years ago. Compare it to the color photo from a similar angle  taken fifty years later.  You will see that the original extended roof over-hang no longer exists and that gingerbread has been added next to the columns which were also replaced. A baluster was added to dress up the porch. French doors replaced the original front windows. And shutters were added to all three front porch openings.

 I found another photo (below) taken by the National Park Service that shows the property sometime in the 70s or 80s. You must admit Key West looks much better in color.

I searched the historic Sanborn Fire Maps to see if I could determine the approximate time frame when this home was built. The first reference I found was in the 1889 map when the house was then numbered 213 White Street. Just three years later the same house was re-numbered 904 White Street, and then in 1899 it was renumbered to its current street address as 906 White Street. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows this house has 1185 sq ft of living space capable of being air conditioned under roof and sits on a 50' X 93' sq ft lot (4650 sq ft). Today there are two bricked off street parking spaces located on either side of the house. The entire front yard is fenced and an arbor marks the entrance over the front gate.  White Street is the eastern boundary of the Key West Historic District which is referred to as Old Town.

 

The listing Realtor describes this home this way:

"Lovingly restored home on the prettiest block on White Street. Spacious Conch cottage bordering The Meadows with everything you'd love in Old Town Key West: white picket fence, front porch and swing, bricked front yard with TWO gated off street parking spaces, heated pool with pool house/guest quarters, outside shower, entertainment area, outdoor dining, mature vegetation, split floor plan for privacy, each bedroom has en-suite bathroom, spacious interior and open concept kitchen-dining area. Centrally located, walk or bike to restaurants, grocery store, White Street Pier/beaches and be right on your porch for the famous Key West Walk on White art display. Truly a magnificent home with a warm, cozy feel. Easy to view! X Zone."

This was a simple house when it was originally built. It has been stylishly updated but not messed around with too much. By that I mean that the interiors are probably similar to the original construction but updated to provide comfortable contemporary features particularly in the kitchen and bathrooms. There are new additions at the rear of the original house which now house the kitchen and dining area, a guest bed and bath, and elevated rear deck area. New windows and mini-split air conditioning have been added through out the home.

The front living area flows into the kitchen and open dining area with high pitched vaulted ceiling. The newly remodeled kitchen includes new Kitchen Made  cabinets, stainless steel appliances, custom tiled counter-tops, and two sets of French doors that open out to the rear deck and pool area. Rich wood floors carry throughout the first floor which includes a downstairs bedroom with en-suite bath.

The photo just above shows the first floor front bedroom with attached bath. A door located next to the pedestal sink opens into the kitchen hallway, adjacent to the stairway to the second floor bedroom. I point this out because there is so much attention to little design details and also the utilization of usable spaces in this home.

There is another, but smaller, first floor bedroom located adjacent to the open kitchen and dining area. A door in the bedroom opens to the outside to provide quick escape or late night sneak-back entry to this bedroom. That bedroom has its own full bath as well.

The second floor bedroom and bath are just adorable. The wood floors in this bedroom are painted and provide a nice contrast to the yellow tones of the walls and the ceiling which is painted white. Battens accentuate the drama of these different building elements. The bathroom has classic black and white checkered tiles and crisp white bath fixtures. The ancient claw foot tub stands in contrast to the sheet of glass shower wall.

The attention to detail is found in all parts of this home. Note the built-in drawers in the bedroom area and the storage space built into the bathroom knee wall. All of the electric switches have small labels stating which feature they control. Nothing is left to chance .CLICK HERE to see more photos I took of this totally charming Old Town home.

When you exit the original house you walk out to a new porch that provides an outdoor dining area that is elevated just a bit above the pool level. You'll quickly see the pool house located on the opposite side of the pool. The pool house has an exaggerated height that is easily understood when you look inside where you will see a ladder to the loft sleeping area. The little building also has a bath. There is an outdoor shower behind the pool house.  This home has a brief recent history as a monthly vacation rental property. The location is within easy walking distance to most of the gyms and yoga studios in Key West. The historic seaport is just a few blocks to the north and the hustle and bustle of Duval Street is a seven minute walk.

906 White Street is offered for sale at $1,300,000. CLICK HERE  to view the Key West mls datasheet and also the listing photos. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to set up a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I think this place is as cute as it can be. It has been thoughtfully maintained and appears to be in very good condition. 

PARIS, a Remembrance

Our train from London pulled into Paris on a late afternoon in June 1963. I was traveling with 17 other teens and two chaperons from the western suburbs of Denver to do grand tour that many American teenagers get to do. We got our bags and checked into a small hotel on the Left Bank. It was a walk-up. I shared a room with Bill Roberts. I think we were on the third or fourth floor. I remember the windows opened out to the mansard roofs across the street and sky above. I had never seen a sight like this before. I loved the architecture and could not wait for our adventure to begin.

Our chaperons gave each of us a few French Francs and let us go in search of some Parisian cafe. Bill and I and a couple of girls walked around and found a little place on what I will call a "V corner". The building was like the Flatirons building in New York only much smaller in size. Our chaperons had written a note which we gave to the matrie de explaining that we had so much money to feed the four of us. He shook his head indicating "impossible". One of us pulled out the money and he brought us right inside and sat us down. I think we all ordered chicken.

My prior experiences with chicken was limited to eating my mother's incredible fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy which was a mainstay on most Sundays. When we would go out to eat I would usually have chicken, spaghetti, or shrimp. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s restaurant fare was pretty simple at least where I came from. So I was totally unprepared for the simple but utterly delicious roasted chicken and French fries I ate that night along with a glass of white wine. Yes I could order wine at age 16 and no I had never drank wine before that night. It was one of the best meals of my life. I remember it fondly.

We did all the things teen tourists do. We went to the Louve, Notre Dame, the Seine, the Arc de triomphe, the Opera, the Eiffel Tower, Montmarte, Sacré Cœur, and Versailles. One night we went to the Moulin Rouge where we had another chicken dinner (they must sell a lot of those in Paris), but this time I drank champagne for the first time. In fact I drank quite a bit of it. I got to see nearly naked women for the first time in my life. They wore tiny little bikinis and pasties as they performed onstage. There was some young muscle guy performing with them. His privates were barely covered. I had never seen anything like this in my little life Lakewood, Colorado. The next day the girls said I behaved badly the night before. All I can say is that I didn't get arrested unlike one of the three other boys who did get a ticket for being a disorderly drunk a couple of weeks later in Vienna. I had many great experiences that summer. Paris will always be a treasured memory of my youth.

I returned to Paris twice since my trip in 1963. In the late 1990s I stayed at the Hotel Lancaster and Meurice for a week and made up for inexpensive roasted chicken dinner of my youth by trying to spend as much money on dining as I could. A few years later I returned for my third-times'-a-charm in this wonderful city. On my later trips I went back to the Louve and other tourist spots. But my best memories of  Paris is the early morning and late afternoon walks I would take walking through the neighborhoods where I would see how the people lead their lives.

And then last night all hell broke loose. If you have read my blog for some time you know I often go back to moments in my youth to tell little tales about how a simple little nerd kid who grew up in the America of the 1950s ended up in Key West. I look back on my youth with mostly fond memories. Life was so much simpler then. We got by on so much less. We all did because we did not have all of the "stuff" that exist today. We did not suffer. We did not miss anything. When our copy of the Saturday Evening Post arrived and I saw a Norman Rockwell picture, it was a picture of the way we really lived. Now I know I lived a lot better than a lot of people in this county. We weren't rich, but we were not poor. We were middle class people. My mom and dad both worked. The pictures I saw on that magazine and in LIFE and LOOK magazine were the way we all lived. And that way of life is now gone forever. What happened last night would have never happened in the 1950s. I don't know what has happened to people to make them act so inhumanely.

I live on a little island out in the middle of the ocean. I feel safe. People are nice here. We are far removed from the insanity of the rest of our world.

Pray for Paris.

1104 South Street, Key West - Price Reduction

You know the saying "You can't judge a book by its cover". Well in Key West real estate you often cannot tell how incredible a house is by the view from the street. The home at 1104 South Street presents a simple facade. If you are just driving by you might think the house sits above the garage below. And you would be wrong.  Passers by have no idea how magical the house is behind the facade. Now there's a better reason to stop and take note of this unique property because the asking price has just been reduced to $1,990,000. 

Two glass panel doors at the front driveway open to a entry where water drips down flagstone walls and delivers you to an intersecting exterior walkway that leads to the main entry or alternately to the pool and garden area. The listing Realtor describes this home this way:

"With a pleasing but unassuming exterior, this house is a dramatic surprise inside. Entrance is through a long cool breezeway with trickling water walls on either side. This leads to a series of interconnected pavilions with soaring cathedral ceilings and walls of French doors. The huge living room, spacious dining room, kitchen and study surround an intimate courtyard with lushly landscaped swimming pool. The secluded master suite has four walls of windows and several inviting balconies. There is a bedroom suite downstairs and a separate guest bedroom and bath upstairs with its own rooftop deck. All this and an enclosed garage too. This unique home is very special."

The living room and adjacent study provide comfortable living spaces. Both rooms have French doors that open out to the deck and pool area. The study area flows into the kitchen which flows into the dining pavilion.

This home is a bit of a contradiction. It sort of looks all glamorous and almost to perfect to live in. And yet it has such an easy flow and genuine relaxed and comfortable feeling when you are there. I immediately "got" this place. I know I would love living here. Even though the house is pretty amazing, it is the easy transition from the architecturally interesting interiors to the simple pool and lush gardens that make this home very appealing.

The large canvas sails over the pool deck area emanate from the second floor guest suite which has its own sun deck which provides the perfect place to get a stunning Key West all over tan. The bedroom with en-suite bath is just adorable.

There is a main level guest suite and bath located on the main level. I took more photos of this wonderful home which you may see if you CLICK HERE.

The master bedroom is located on the second floor of the "carriage house" at the front of the property. This space is both expansive and dramatic.

French doors open from the bedroom and bathroom out to two separate covered second floor balconies. I can imagine sitting out here in the morning sipping coffee and watching neighbors out walking the dog or jogging. At night you could look off to the west and see our magnificent Key West flirted just a bit by the swaying palms that dot the Casa Marina neighborhood.


CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on 1104 South Street which is offered by Preferred Properties Key West at the asking price of $1,990,000. Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing of this special home. There is not another like this in all of Key West.

400 Simonton Street, Key West, Florida - Investment Property

Just Listed, but not by me, 400 Simonton Street in Key West, Florida. According to the Monroe County Appraiser this landmark building was built circa 1889. See the black and white photo which shows how this property looked back in 1965. That's nearly half a century ago. My God, I graduated from high school that year. Compare it to the color photo below. The property has had various uses over the years. And now it is offered for sale. The listing broker describes this property like this:

"Historic Downtown Home from the late 1800's just a few steps from the Seaport. There are 6 charming apartments each with old town architectural appeal. A mixture of studio, one bedroom and two bedroom units. Small garden area with a tropical feel and many porches for tenants to enjoy."

 The building itself looks to be in very good shape. Compare the way the building looked in 1965 to its appearance in today. It is virtually the same. Even the exterior stairs between the floors is visible. According to the mls listing this building has 4078 sq ft of living space located on a 4200 sq ft lot (42'x100') at the corner of Eaton Street and Simonton Street. Zoning is HNC1.  

I considered buying this property and the adjacent Artist House guest house (located next door at 534 Eaton Street) when that owner at that time was tinkering with the idea of selling both buildings. He had been renting rooms at 400 Simonton Street as part of the guest house. I don't know if he ever got caught because that is not permitted. That owner sold both properties to different people. The Artist House has sold at least twice since then. Today the property at 400 Simonton Street is licensed to rent six non-transient long term rentals.

I took a couple of not-so-good photos of the bricked courtyard and was reminded that the area was previously used as a small cafe. I think that space is quite lovely but very under utilized today. 

The thing that excites me about this property has nothing to do about the current uses but rather what it might become. Years ago the first floor was a real estate company and the bricked garden was a small cafe of sorts.  Earlier this week the owners of the Marquesa Hotel announced a $10 million dollar expansion onto the adjacent properties at 410 and 414 Simonton Street. CLICK HERE to read more. Use your imagination to see what you might do with this property at this great Old Town location. 408 Simonton Street is pictured below. That's but a taste of what is to become.

The Reception area at the Marquesa Annex

400 Simonton Street is offered for sale at $1,600,000.  CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on this property. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Tenants may require 24 to 48 hour advance notice to view the apartments. This is a buying opportunity for a buyer who wants either a performing investment property or someone who wants to do something creative with a great old building in a very solid location.