The Nightmare on Eaton Street, Key West

Do you recognize this Key West location? If you are a local or returning visitor to Key West you probably have walked or driven by it many times. The two buildings in the rear are your clue. If you are a Keywester in your late 70s you might be one of the children.

The dark areas of the map show the breadth of the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1886.

 

I found some photos on the Monroe County Library website which show how the parking lot behind the children came  to be - FIRE. Not the Great Fire of 1886 that destroyed so many homes and buildings but the one that took down the First Baptist Church and torched two homes across Eaton Street. 

 

The ground breaking for the Masonic Temple at 535 Eaton Street in July 1950. Photo by Key West Photo Service.

The Masonic Temple at 535 Eaton Street looked like this before it was taken down to be a hold in the ground to be replaced by concrete block. What a site Eaton Street must have been before man and fire took down such beautiful buildings.

The hurricane of 1944 toppled trees but the beautiful homes and churches on Eaton Street survived.

President Harry Truman and Chief Justice Fred Vinson at the First Baptist Church in Key West C 1950. Jeff Brodhead Collection. You will see the completed building below. Today the building houses The Studios of Key West as well as Judy Blume's bookstore.

A Navy float in a parade passing the Baptist Church at 524 Eaton Street C 1950. Photo by Key West Photo Service.

The photos below show the  former church and the houses on the opposite side of Eaton Street the day after the nightmare on Eaton Street.

The above photo was shot from Bahama Lane looking north toward Eaton Street. The following photos show direct views of BPOE building at corner of Simonton Street and Eaton, 529 Eaton Street (now Carriage Trade Inn), 525 Eaton Street (destroyed home now parking for Simonton Court Guest House), 523 Eaton Street (one of the Simonton Court properties does not appear to show any damage). 

1957 New Church and offices being constructed

The former First Baptist Church was rebuilt using concrete block construction and 1950s architecture. The Scottish Rite Temple looks like pre-World War II design dragged into the post war building boom. Both stand today and would probably defy a fire. They did defy Hurricane Irma in 2017. That is a good thing or bad thing depending on how you feel about mid-century American architecture and concrete block construction. The old wood houses also stand today, about one hundred and fifty years after their construction. The styles and construction materials give us the option to opine in favor of one over the other.

Look backup at the locals surveying the damage to their cultural history. It is no less damaging as when we all watched the fire at Notre Dame. It was personal to them. I may write wise cracks about a lot of things in Key West, but fire is not one of them (even though I did write a wise crack a few lines above). Our little paradise is so vulnerable to fire. It truly is a nightmare. 

 

No Photos Allowed

 Long time readers of my real estate blog know how much I value photos to help add meaning to my posts. I confess I watch repeat episodes of The Three Stooges. I watched the shows as a kid and as an adult. Some are funny. Some are hysterical. And the short entitled Dutiful But Dumb (1941) are prophetic so much so that I stopped eating dinner on Saturday to pen this piece.

The episode was described this way in The Three Stooges Online Filmography:

Three dimwitted photographers are sent to Vulgaria to take pictures of a new death ray machine. Unknown to the stooges, the penalty for snapping pictures in this country is death. The stooges manage to escape a firing squad and the chase begins as they hide from the Vulgarian army.

As I watched the stooges get into trouble with the police for simply taking photos of them, my mind snapped back to 1963 when I was riding a train through East Germany. I was on a school trip with 18 high school students and two sponsors. We spent two or three days in West Berlin. We toured East Berlin which I blogged about a few years ago. I got to see President Kennedy on his way from the Free University of Berlin where he also spoke that day. 

We left Berlin and took the train south to Italy. Berlin was actually located inside East Germany at that time. We got to experience East German law just like The Three Stooges Vularian law. Our train stopped in a small East German village. East German troops guarded the station. They had machine guns on their shoulders. I never saw anything like that in America. (That happens a lot now. But not then.)

Nina M. was one of my classmates. I could write a book about Nina. But I won't. I will say she was a sweet and very innocent girl who never did a bad thing in her life until she went to Europe. I don't think she had ever cut her hair. It reached to her behind. She wore the dullest clothes that hid her femininity. The other girls got her to cut her hair to the length of the early 1960s. She was still helpless but she had shorter hair. And she was still the simple girl from Colorado. 

Nina had a 35mm camera which she raised to photograph the soldiers. There were signs posted stating NO PHOTOS. Within a minute or so the soldiers had boarded our train car and moved right to Nina where one soldier grabbed her camera and took out the film which he exposed to all of us. She shrieked. We all gasped. The soldier shouted something out about not taking photos of them as if what they did was beyond reproach.

The Three Stooges and my recollection of Nina's encounter with the East German soldiers reminded me of so many news clips on television and videos on Twitter where the police have been photographed doing things that on first instance look bad or in actuality were very bad. Of course the Vulgarians and the East Germans did not want photos of their soldiers, their police, their conduct. Nobody wants proof of misdeeds. Such photos only confuse the public order.

 

Something Bad Happened While Showing a House in Key West

Bad stuff happens to all of us sometimes.

This past year it seemed like the bad stuff would never end.

More recently almost every man made thing I own broke or worked only occasionally. Getting people to show up in Key West and fix things has become a task beyond compression. Malaise sets in. Big time.

A former buyer is in town. We started to look at maybe buying a new little place.

We found one. I  did what you are never supposed to do. I oohed and awed. The place was perfect.

I went home and got out the Windex and started clean my own house. It takes seeing how clean some people can be to motivate me. Sad. True. 

 

 

Before It Was Made Perfect

I was rummaging around my old shoebox and found some photos of the old Albury House on Southard Street. The house was purchased over a decade ago but it still seems like it was only a couple of years. It is absolutely perfect now. But it was totally different in 2009 when I took these photos. Enjoy.

  

The back side of the house looked like it might fall off. It didn't. A pool would be built in the open space. The old kitchen was made new with doors that open wide to view the pool. But back 2009 kitchen was but a wreck of a relic. And that is why this house was so incredible before it was made perfect.

 I sell houses to rich people because nobody else can afford them.

1009 Southard Street, Key West - A Modest Proposal

 

1009 Southard Street, Key West, Florida as it appears today on one of the most important blocks as far as Key West architecture is concerned. I wrote about this house in my blog many years ago. I recently showed it and was reminded of all the potential this house had then and has now. Like many old homes in Key West it was re-purposed by former owners many years ago but retains critical usage advantages today that give a future owner multiple options.  When we look at the historic photos below you will see how the two buildings changed and how those changes may make this property more valuable than it would seem.

The 1965 photo shows us how much the house changed since even then. The screens were removed opening the first floor front porch. A second level porch was added. An existing covered second floor porch was enclosed which expanded the original second floor living space. A separate second level porch extends outward with a stairway that leads down toward the back of the house. (That stairway flow now leads toward the front of the property.) This shows us that the original single family Conch house was already made into at least two living units: one up and one down with separate entrances. That still exists today. But there is more.

 

The above photos show the legal existing bedroom and bath in present day rear cottage and garage. You; will see interior later. I checked the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps which show that 1009 Southard Street existed at least as of 1889. The garage appeared on the 1892 map. This irregular rectangle lot is 6,944 Sq FT and measures 136 Ft long and 52 Ft wide at the rear. That is huge in Old Town and explains why the east side yard is so expansive and is the present day entry garden into this lovely property.

Not into the two distant past a separate pool on the east side was removed and the space became the garden and formal entry into the downstairs living area.  I think the renovations were done in the 1980s or early 1990s as they reflect the colors and some of fixtures used then. Others are more current but the unification of the gabled cottage with a lower angled roof in the living suggests that to me. We will see an exterior view later.

The master bedroom of the first floor unit is so comfortable. It actually made me feel like I was inside a luxury hotel room. The front porch is for sitting only as the formal entry is on the side. Look at the shutters. They appear to original to the house and are functional. They may be cypress wood. Not sure but I suspect they are as that was common years ago. Also seen are current metal plates to which metal panels are affixed to get wind storm insurance credits. 

The second floor apartment enters from the west side of the house and has three bedrooms (front shown in above photo) plus two more on the third floor. There is an internal unit stair to those units. I checked and there is no view of the pool from the second or third floor. The present owner rented that apartment for $3,035 per month. Vacant now.

The pool photos show the rear renovation where the current downstairs living, dining, and kitchen are located. That spaces has two bedrooms and two baths. The photos also show huge decks with sunny views but no privacy invasions by abutting houses. The one time garage is now one bedroom guest bedroom with private bath. The other side is still a garage. That space is a legal bedroom which if rented annually should bring in $1200 to $1500 per month. 

SOUTHARD STREET in the 1960s

I have seen so many of the homes on Southard Street benefit from renovation over the years. This is one house that might benefit from a new renovation or conversion into a single family house. It really has so many potential possibilities. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and more listing photos. Offered for sale at $2,799,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a full time Realtor and buyers agent at Preferred Properties Key West.