Key West Renters & Owners Who Knew We Were Coming...

... but didn't care.

Below are photos I took while showing rental apartments and investor owned homes offered for sale in Key West  All tenants were notified in advance their places would be shown on a particular day and time. 

A mother, small daughter, and a stinky cat lived here. I specifically mention the cat because the odor lives on in my memory.
 

A large family lived in this Bahama Village rental. The listing Realtor gave them cash to leave, He and I hired cleaners to remove the heaps of crap they left and clean the filth..

The listing agent insisted this was a piece of paradise. Yeah. Paradise Lost!

I posted photos of this house before. It was owned by a former City of Key West official. He lacked organizational skills among other things.

I have shown this photo before as well. I have never gotten over how some people live. This was an illegal rental situation where multiple tenants shared a single family home. Some of the rooms were clean and tidy. This combination kitchen sink and bathroom was not one of those. 

I remember showing this place to a really nice investor couple who bought four or five places from me. The two women tenants apologized for not straightening up They were too busy with work.

This was a unit in a 4+ apartment building. Tenants in two of the apartments kept their places clean and neat. And this person less so. 

I actually remember taking this photo. Several roommates shared a single family home that was offered for sale. This renter kept everybody out. The rest of the house was in good condition so it was fair to assume that room was probably okay. But some people live like rats and you take a chance when you really can't look. And there may be no assurance that a potential hold-over tenant rat boy will leave.

My favorite Home Alone and I Don't Even Care photo is of the master bedroom with en-suite bath from hell. Some loony old lady lived in this hell hole. I showed the place in this condition. I wrote an all cash offer for a buyer who lost out to an offer written by the listing agent. 

41 Years and a Day Later Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 37

from 9-16-2015 - Redacted from a longer blog

My First Job

 

Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the death of John Lennon. Guests on Morning Joe were citing their recollections of the man, the band and its impact on our lives.  The blog follows.

I went back to Denver at the end of July to attend my 50th high school reunion. I drove by the places of my youth which included this group of buildings located at the corner of 44th and Yates Street. I started working there in 1960 at age 14 and stayed until 1965. Back then this was known as LOOK FURNITURE STORE. This was my first job.

This area is located at the northwest corner of Denver near the famous Lakeside Amusement Park and former Lakeside Speedway. The old Denver Tramway crossed over Cherry Creek and made its way eventually heading north on Yates Street where it jogged two blocks west and ended at Lakeside Park at 46th and Sheridan. This was the end of the line and also the end of  Denver until just after World War II when the western suburbs began to emerge just west of Sheridan Boulevard. Before the War and even afterward to some extent, many people did not have cars. They relied on their feet and public transportation like the Denver Tramway. Little neighborhood convenience stores and theaters were the forerunners of shopping centers that popped up in the 1950s. The corner building (top photo) was originally a drug store. The gray monster to the right used to be the Coronet Theater. The buildings that front onto Yates Street were small stores. 

Denver Tramway car at 40th and Yates C. 1910

Danny Ferguson was the owner of Look Furniture.  He made doorway openings between the separate spaces to create one very large retail space. The main entry was in the middle on Yates Street. It looks like a subsequent owner removed the doorway passages and turned the spaces and buildings into separate entities. The former main entry (below) is now an abandoned showroom of some sort. Most of the other store fronts appeared abandoned.

One of the buildings on the Yates Street was where we sold new and used appliances. In addition to helping load and unload furniture, I would dust the furniture, mop the floors, and clean used appliances so that they would look clean for resale. I got pretty good at it. When I turned 16 I got to help deliver furniture. My pay went from fifty cents and hour to a dollar an hour. I saved my earnings and used them to pay for my trip to Europe in the summer of 1963 where I got to see President Kennedy in Berlin and to run through the cobblestone streets of Salzburg Austria on a rainy Saturday night. I worked for below minimum wage. But I worked and I learned the value of money and of saving. I paid my way through college and law school. I did not do a lot of the things other kids my age did. There is a trade-off for that. Looking back I don't know if I made the right choices. But I can't change the choices I made. 

In August 1964 I had to drive a big truck to downtown Denver to deliver furniture. I had to go past the corner of Colfax at Broadway. That was a mistake. The BEATLES were staying at the Brown Palace Hotel about two blocks away. I got caught up in traffic hell. There streets were flooded with girls. Traffic was stopped in all directions. I found one photo that shows the chaos around the hotel and another that shows the crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheater located about 12 miles away at the foot of the Rockies. These photos show the way girls wore their hair back in the mid 1960s. They all looked alike.  This July when I walked into the registration at my reunion, the women all had gray hair or white hair. One woman was in a walker. You have no idea how depressed that made me feel. No way whatsoever - unless, like me, you are over 65.

Scotty's Lumber Legacy in Key West

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key West has been a tourist town for decades dating back to the time Henry Flagler brought his railroad to town. While the population remained fairly static during the same time frame, tourists and later second home owners put a strain on available housing. The town expanded south toward the Atlantic Ocean and east toward the point US 1 enters the island. Both areas had previously been barren coral rock mixed in with salt ponds. There were two principle sources of lumber and hardware - Lindsey's Lumber located at the corner of Simonton at Truman. Stunk Hardware was located at the opposite end of Simonton Street near the Gulf of Mexico. Consider this - Key West is an island located 120 or so miles from firm US soil. Lumber and most building supplies are delivered to Key West by truck. Having a single source of one style of kitchen cabinet made sense back in the day.

Scotty's lumber was located at the corner of 700 Catherine Street - just east of First State Bank. I recall Scotty's relocated back to the corner of Simonton at Truman. See photo below. 

Scotty's then moved to 2801 North Roosevelt Blvd in Key West. That building was built around the same time the adjacent Walgreens. I read online that Scotty's was a Florida based lumber yard with locations across the state. In later years Scotty's added discount pricing to a variety of goods to compete with Home Depot and Lowes. Locally the new Manley deBoer Lumber Company offered premium lumber in Key West. Scotty's was razed in 2004 and replaced by a brand new Home Depot.

That's not the end of Scotty's legacy, however. A few weeks ago I showed visiting buyers a few homes that were built in the early 1990''s. I pointed to the kitchen cabinets. I had seen the same cabinets in Truman Annex, 1800 Atlantic Condominiums, Windward Park Town Homes, and countless single family homes in Key West. Scotty's was the primary provider kitchen cabinets for years. Here are some examples. The first photo is an active listing.

The same cabinets were even in my house when I bought it.Today Home Depot offers a variety of cabinets in many price ranges. Hansen & Bringle Cabinets and Millwork make custom cabinets in Key West while other stores sell special cabinets from other areas and states. Scotty's legacy lives on.

If It's Monday, It Must Be Laundry Day in Key West!

Last week I blogged about a new listing on Chapman Lane. I mentioned the laundry hanging from the front porch. That would be an oddity in most places in Key West today, but it was common place half a century ago. I decided to rummage through my old shoebox to see if I could find similar photos. I did.

Undisclosed Key West location. Taken in 1962. 

1209 Packer Street in 1965.

This same property sold in  2017 for $1,2000,000.

801 Virginia Street in 1965. No recorded sales.

1009 Windsor Lane in 1965. 

1009Windsor is currently listed for sale for $3,477,000.

1202 Royal Street in 1965. Rear unit. Probably front porch.Sols in 2021 for $1,100,000.

 

1115 Margaret Street in 1965.  Sold in 1995 for $199,000.

1207 William Street rear unit. Also photographed in 1965.

1207 Willliam Street is part of a small condominium complex of historic cottages. One unit recently sold for $625,000.

The house at 731 United Street actually had a clothesline in the front yard in 1965. The house is still there and has a Conch paved front yard. No annoying grass or shrubs to attend to.

724 Caroline Street in 1965. Renovated and transferred by private sales.

This laundry is in the side yard at 1117 Flemig Street as photographed in 1965. The house is till there today. This property was recently offered for sale for $1,250,000. It is still a fixer. nd it is located next door to a resort property.

 

This is a test. Do you recognize this location? It is 535 William Street. The wrap-around awning no longer exists and the first floor plumbing store is now apartments. The doors have been replaced by windows.

 

 628 Catherine Street also in 1965 This property was razed. The land is now part of First State Bank.

 

You probably walked past this house at 624 Whitehead Street on your way to visit The Hemingway House This property is now professional offices. It is located near the Monroe County Courthouse. 

1102 Duval Street in 1965. Today it is the Grand Vin - fancy wine store.

This is one of several small cottages at 720 Elizabeth Street. A one bedroom cottage sold in 2020 for $565,000.

910 Elizabeth Street in 1965. 910 Elizabeth Street sold in 2021 for $2,470,000.

644 William Street also in 1965. This place looks about the same today.

724 Ashe Street as photographed in 1965.This house was renovated and sold in 2004 for $1,245,000. Then it became a short sale. The lucky new owner only paid $690,000. It is probably worth $1,300,000 or more today. He was my buyer. I had to talk into buying it. He thought I was tricking him. He was from New Jersey. Not everyone is crooked.

 

This is 1101 Simonton Street as photographed in 1965.The first floor retail space is now office space - very expensive office space.

God made many great things on Earth and man made drop-off laundries in Key West. There is no more need to air your clean clothes in public. I started to write today's blog on Sunday morning. I spent too much time looking thru all the old photos and missed attending an open house to see a new listing from Saturday. It went under contract last night. I should have known better. No more dawdling.