My Secret Love ~ Love Lane, Key West

A visitor to Key West snapped the above photo of 712 Love Lane during an open house and posted it on her Instagram page along with this comment: "Touring a secluded gem on Love Lane that has provided inspiration to many distinguished authors..." with a series of hash tags.  It's wonderful how people who see homes like this just fall in love with Key West.  

Poets and writers have written on the subject of love for centuries. I'm sure that we have all experienced the euphoria of falling in love and some have endured the pain of falling out as well.  Life and Love and complicated. In celebration of Valentine's Day I thought it appropriate to write about one of my favorite lanes in Old Town - Love Lane

 Finding Love Lane can be confusing. There are three separate "Love Lanes" each located near the other but far enough apart to totally confuse just above anyone. If you walk on the north side of Southard Street you will find a Love Lane sign midway between William and Elizabeth Streets. If you walk down the lane you will find that the lane abruptly ends where a house sits and the lane ends. Bur if you are walk on the south side of Fleming Street between Elizabeth and William Streets you will find an unmarked walking lane that begins at the edge of the Monroe County Public Library (which has been referred to as the Pink Library). This, too, is Love Lane. And if you went back to Southard Street and walked on the south side of the street you would find a tiny little walking lane, a lane also called Love Lane. In his book The Streets of Key West author J. Willis Burke explains the confusion about Love Lane:

"Love can generate some confusion - and Love Lane is no exception. Some maps show to Loves, one coming off Fleming and another off Southard, but not meeting mid-block. Other maps indicate Gwynn Street, named for a former mayor and cigar tycoon E. O. Gwynn, is the lane that runs off Southard. And yet another source cites Johnny Cake Lane as making up the northern half of Love Lane. At one time perhaps it did... As confirmed by the loving couple who lives on the Fleming Street side of the lane, both are now called Love Lane. It seems they don't meet because the bungalow that bisects the lane was built on the sly, and over the decades, has been grandfathered and let stand."

I grabbed my camera and took photos of each of the current existing houses on Love Lane. I rummaged through my old shoebox and found photos of Love Lane taken a little over fifty years ago Let's see how much remains the same and how much things have changed. One of the anchor houses for the longest segment of Love Lane is actually numbered 713 Southard Street.  It's a big old unpainted Bahamian House with a large rear yard that abuts Love Lane.  I know there will be hordes of buyers in line to buy this house when the day comes it goes on the market. Until then it will just stand there looking foreboding has it has for decades.

721 Southard Street is the other anchor house. It has been restored and stands proud and tall among the smaller cottage style houses nearby. 

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Notice the scuttles on the historic metal roof. Scuttles were used to ventilate these homes. Notice also the lack of trees around most of the homes in this block. This was typical of most of Key West until the gentrification of Old Town starting in the 1970s. 

The photo of 717 Love Lane is all that remains of that old house. Today the space is a vacant appendage to 727 Love Lane which has an enormous side yard. Surprisingly, that huge lot has never had a pool added.

728 Love Lane  Key West

 

The north of Southard Street segment of Love Lane abruptly ends at 721 and 722 Love Lane. On the 1889 Sanborn Fire Map the lane veered right (east) for about 40 feet or so and then turned north again where part of the lane was maybe five feet wide at most. Remember this was at a time when nobody had cars and few people had horses. It wasn't until after the end of World War II that many locals even had cars and parking in Old Town was not that big of a a deal. Most of the houses on this segment are both larger in size and also located on larger lots than either of the other two Lone Lane blocks. 

716 Southard Street but this is the south of Southard segment of Love Lane. There is a smaller cottage in the rear.

712 Love Lane 2017

712 Love Lane  Key West

There are two more cottages located behind a fence at the south terminus of this segment of Love Lane.  Although 712 Love Lane now has gated parking, I would bet its pretty cumbersome to get into and out. Love Lane is much more narrow here than the section located off Southard Street.

I think most of the residents in this section of Love Lane probably don't mind walking to their cars. Their lives are removed from much of the hustle and bustle going on out on Fleming Street. The Monroe County Library acts as a nice little buffer.  When they walk down the lane the rest of their world is an oyster. All roads lead to someplace far away and exotic.  I personally think living on a lane called Love would be pretty satisfying. There are no current home listings on Love Lane. But there will be - sometime. Maybe this is a location you could fall in love with as well. 

514 Elizabeth Street, Key West

JUST LISTED

Just Listed 514 Elizabeth Street, Key West. I have written about this house a few times over the ten years I have written my blog, not because it has been offered for sale but rather to share with my Dear Readers that this is the first house I sold in Key West.  It has been owned by the same people these many years. As I recall there were three factors that influenced their decision to buy this place. First, the house really is historic - it is one of the very oldest homes in Key West. Second, it has a great location equal distance to Duval Street and the Historic Seaport. And three it had off street parking and a deep back yard with room for a pool. The owners built that pool, the old house charm and the location never changed. Today this home is offered for sale at $1,500,000.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said, "Less is more."  The simplicity of design and original construction make it stand out among the many homes in Old Town that have been over-renovated. My research shows the house as having been built circa 1855. The photo directly below shows the house in 1965. Below that is a photo I took a about then years ago. The bottom photo was taken in 2013 from 517 Elizabeth shorty after it was remodeled and offered for sale. The present owner is an architectural historian. He told me  that 514 Elizabeth is "is typical of the conch or Bahamian house built in the Bahamas from the 1780s and in Key West prior to the Civil War. The original architectural moldings that survive are typical of the 1835-1860 period."

The facade is so simple. The front porch is meant for setting. The front door opens into a wide hallway with the formal parlor on the right and the ground floor bedroom on the left. There is a main floor bath at the left rear. The stairway to the second floor bedrooms is located on the right. The original Dade County Pine walls and floors are still intact throughout the house. The only noticeable things I saw that has changed is the front scuttle no long is visible inside the second floor bedrooms. The house has central air conditioning and that vitiated the need to use the scuttle for ventilation.

You probably can't tell it from the photos but the wood walls also help us date the house. The wood planks are much wider than typical houses from the 1890s and beyond. That means the Dade County Pine walls were "old growth lumber" which means earlier construction. The floors and walls have settled a bit with age. Purists who want a genuine old house will appreciate this. People who want something is all perfect will not. I remember staying at the Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds many years ago. We stayed in the room that Oliver Cromwell stayed in the night before the Battle of Hastings in 1620. The room tilted a bit. The hotel had a fancy new addition. I preferred the tilt. And that is why I find this house so utterly charming.

 The previous owner added a new kitchen and dining area more than twenty years ago. It is showing its age a bit. A new owner might update the space.

One of the joys of living in Key West is the ability to open the doors in the winter and allow the sunshine inside and merge the inside with the outside at night. Two separate spaces become one environment to share with family and friends. It's meals on heels instead of meals on wheels here.

During the daytime the pool is the perfect place to get than Key West tan that will make your friends from the frozen north green with envy.

A new owner might build a rear cottage on the north side of this L-shaped lot where the current lower level dining area is located. The new structure could be built at the same height as the laundry cottage across the pool on the north. There appears to be enough ground to comply with set back and lot usage requirements. If this were done, the new owner could end of having a four bedroom home in an ideal Old Town location. CLICK HERE to view more photos of this home.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on 514 Elizabeth Street which is a Pre-Civil War home in Key West offered by Preferred Properties at $1,500,000. Then call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. This is a great location and a precious home in our community.