4 Gecko Lane, Key West - Just Listed

 

4 Gecko Lane is one of my all time favorite properties in Key West. I think I saw it the very first time in 2003 soon after it was listed for sale. It was at that time a one-of-a-kind property where two houses were made into one. A few other people copied the concept but the original remains the best. The property even appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine in the mid 1980s just after the initial renovations were being completed. Let's look at some photos to see why this home is so special.

Gecko Lane is one of those Slow Lanes of Key West that I muse about. The lane is located on the north side of Eaton Street between Margaret and William Streets. If you blink while riding your bike or car, you will miss it. That is why locations like this are so sought after. They are hidden gems. Upon arrival at the front gate you enter a courtyard of what looks like three buildings separated by a large pool. As you move inward you see beautiful wood decks frame the pool as a piece of art. The gazebo at the side "connects" the master bedroom cottage with the main house.

At first look you may think the property is rather confined. But you would be mistaken. The lot is actually quite large - 6,312 square feet. The lot is an irregular rectangle that measures 161' X 45'. There is a huge yard at the rear for parking access off Roberts Lane. And there are several garden areas, patio, and outdoor shower. It's not so small after all.

Once you step inside the main living area you will be awed by the simplicity of design. Dade County Pine is framed by crisp white trim, baseboards, and crown molding. One of the two guest bedrooms is located just off the living area which has an adjacent bath. 

A second guest bedroom is located on the second level. I find these spaces just special for brothers-in-law. I think grandchildren would love this space. Kids dig privacy and unique spaces.

There is lovely patio opposite the kitchen with a portion of the garden in view just beyond. Tropical foliage envelopes the entire lot.

Even though the master bedroom has a cathedral ceiling, the area is quite cozy and romantic. Imagine opening the door for a late night dip before going to bed. The master bath has two sinks, lots of storage, a marble bath, and separate WC. If you are like me, you will prefer the outdoor shower. There is nothing like showering under swaying palms or starry nights - especially when people up north are freezing in the cold of winter.

I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps to try to determine when the cottages were built. The county tax records suggest the houses were built in 1925. But the 1912 Sanborn Fire Map shows both cottages existed as of that date. The lane was little more than a walkway and was not given a name of record. I added arrows to show Roberts Lane which now has an electric gate leading that opens into the rear undeveloped lot at 4 Gecko Lane where the current owners parks the car. Roberts Lane exists onto Caroline Street. The Key West Seaport begins there. Duval Street is a five minute walk from Caroline or Eaton Street. Nothing is far away. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and lots of photos of 4 Gecko Lane, Key West offered for sale at $1,749,000. Make sure to read the listing details as this house has been significantly updated. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

823 Terry Lane, Key West - New to the Market

 

Just Listed, but not by me, 823 Terry Lane, Key West. The concrete front porch base and brick columns tell us that the house was updated about fifty years ago as those building elements were common then. I dug into my old shoebox and found a photo of this house that was taken in 1965.

The 1965 photo shows a wooden porch base with decorative wood rails and columns. The tree in the front was there then and is even large now. I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps to see if I could determine an approximate time this building was built. I did see what looks like a smaller dwelling on the lot in the 1892 map. The 1899 map shows a longer structure that I believe is the current house. I mention this because our property records often provide erroneous construction dates. This house is shown as being built in 1933 or during the Depression. We know that it was not. 

The property records show the house as being 1,178 square feet in size plus a 152 square foot front porch. It has three bedrooms and two baths. The lot measures 22' X 96'. The house is 19' wide. There is space in the rear where a new property owner might be able to add a water feature. The adjoining property to the south and part of the rear is owned by the Key West Housing Authority. Don't let that scare you. The immediate space is parking. The residences are located on Whitehead Street. The houses and grounds are immaculately maintained. I found a photo I took of the pool area on the other side of the fence of 823 Terry Lane. That house (condo) just sold for $831,831 in 2021.

I wrote several blogs about the houses across the street that are a part of a small condominium association. This is a colorful street located two blocks from Duval and within easy walking distance to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park and Beach.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet for more detailed information on 823 Terry Lane Key West offered for sale at $799,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a showing. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

 

Will It be Finished by Christmas in Key West?

The above photo was taken from the Key West lighthouse in 1910 - just fourteen years after the Great Fire of 1886 which destroyed most of the commercial buildings and many homes in Old Town. You can see the spires of St. Mary's Cathedral near the upper right and Ernest Hemingway's House in the lower left.Most of the homes in Old Town were built by 1899. Use your wildest imagination and contemplate how so many homes could have been built on an island with few natural occurring building resources and serviced only by boats in a time before power tools, delivery trucks, air conditioning, and porta potties were available.

The above photo was taken from the corner of Truman Avenue looking north on White Street in 1928. I added the arrow on the left side to indicate 916 White Street which was one of several cigar maker cottages that made up the Pohalski Village.

In 1886 an entire village for cigar makers was developed in one corner of Old Town Key West. The Pohalski and Co. cigar factory was located at the corner of White and Truman. Cottages lined the nearby streets and lanes as was typical of the other parts of town where other cigar factories were located. The cigar maker cottages were simple in design and construction and provided basic shelter to factory workers. In his book The Streets of Key West, J. Willis Burke writes about Pohalski Village: "On the other side, off the western [should be eastern] side of the cemetery are Havana Street and Pohalski Avenue, byways that echo the area's once thriving cigar-making industry.... In the late 1880s, cigar magnate Pincus Pohalski, a transplant from Texas built a factory and then established an entire village within this block."  Smaller lanes in the village include Gerome Avenue which is a City of Key West walking lane about eight feet wide and nearby Nichols Avenue which is only about ten feet wide and runs perpendicular to Pohalski Lane  the rear through street west of White Street. Division Street at the south is now known as Truman Avenue. At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th the people who lived in these homes probably did not have horses let alone cars.  The houses were jumbled together on small lots accessed via small lanes called Avenues. Many other cigar manufacturers built similar cottages for workers across Old Town and even into what is now Mid town.

I have been photographing the renovation of 916 White Street for well over one year. The builders have rebuilt the place from bottom to top, side to side, front to back. They are not done yet. 

I am not being critical of  how long it is taking this contractor to complete the project. I think the crew has done a remarkable job. This contractor is not taking longer than other contractors. They all seem to take over one year to complete a renovation of a similarly sized cottage. Renovation of grand conch houses take much longer to complete. I also have been following a big house on Caroline Street for over two years. I drove by it on Sunday. Not much progress since my last drive by three weeks ago. 

How is it that builders more than a century earlier could build entire communities with hand tools and building materials transported by boat compared to current day contractors with power tools and two building supply stores filled with everything they need to build a million dollar redo.

916 White Street will appear in my next Projects of Key West blog which hopefully will get published sometime before Christmas.

630 Margaret Street, Key West - Just Listed

 

Just Listed 630 Margaret Street, Key West. This has to be one of my favorite houses in Old Town. I love it for the simplicity in design and its super-quite location abutting Carey Lane and across the street from the Key West cemetery. 

Let's get the basics out of the way. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows the house was constructed in 1938. I checked the historic Sanborn Fire Maps and actually found the house first appeared in the 1912 map. The lot was vacant up to the 1899 map. There were numerous other house built on Margaret and Angela Street (later renamed Carey Lane. 630 Margaret St was an infill. So we know it was built sometime after 1899 and before 1912. I mention this as the house is atypical for its design as compared to other homes in Old Town which are often referred to as Conch House. It is a bungalow style home that emerged after the turn of the 20th Century.

The lot measures 29 feet wide and 72 feet deep. There is a gate at the rear that opens out to Carey Lane - one of the prettiest slow lanes in Key West. The backyard is large enough to add a pool. The backyard has some tropical plantings but it is mostly concrete patio. The front yard is gated and private. 

The house has an enclosed front porch which enters into the living and dining area. There are two bedrooms on the right side of the house. The rear bedroom has a door that enters the bathroom. The bathroom may also be accessed off a second door in the kitchen. I took some interior photos shown below. 

This may sound crazy but an investor could buy this house and rent it out as a long term rental without spending any money on fix-up. Everything looked in good operating order to me. A home inspection is needed, but I feel confident the place is okay to start making money for a passive investor. This property will continue to appreciate as the inventory of un-fixed homes shrinks and property values escalate. I think this could rent for $3,500 per month or more. Or buy it and renovate it.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and professional photos. Then please contact me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to arrange a private showing. The place is vacant and easy to see. Trust me this place will sell quickly. Don't scratch your head thinking about it. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

True Tales of Key West Real Estate in the Times of Covid 19 - No Twelve

 

This really happened. Sometime in the early 2000's. I was working as an agent at Prudential Knight Real Estate at 336 Duval Street Key West. I had floor duty that day. A woman beyond middle age came inside and asked to look around the building. She said she grew up in the property which was once the Key West school house and later was a single family home. Later it became a real estate office. I walked her through the property and then we went out back where there are six very valuable parking spaces. She pointed to the northwest corner of the lot. She paused. Hesitated. And then recalled the most dreadful remembrance of having lived there. The out house in the northwest corner.

She told how horrible it was anytime. She mentioned the unbearable smell, the heat and the rain but it was especially scary at night. All by herself. In the dark. She said she ran back inside of the house as quickly as possible.

 

 

316 southard Street. Key West - Just Listed - Re-Development Potential

The newly listed property at 316 Southard Street in Key West popped onto my MLS platform late Thursday afternoon. I immediately sought permission from the listing agent to blog about it. You may scratching your head wondering how much medicinal marijuana I was on. Trust me, I was as sober as the Pope. Maybe more.

Southard Street is main public entry in the Truman Annex which has become the most popular residential community in Key West. The aerial photo above was taken in the 1920s. I added the X to show the location of 316 Southard. Several of the neighboring properties were razed and rebuilt. The court house square has been both expanded and rebuilt. The old jail and original court house in the center remain. 

This photo from 1900 shows how large Key West had expanded after the Civil War. Whitehead Street to the left (east) was and remains one of the busiest streets in Old Town during the daytime as tourists and delivery trucks navigate the island. Most of the traffic grinds to a halt soon after 5:00 PM when the attorneys and judges go home, the deliveries are completed, and the tourists head back to their temporary homes to prepare for the evening.

I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps found 316 Southard Street existed as early as 1889. The original house appears to have been enlarged. Later a second house existed a bit further back on the huge lot - it runs 140 feet deep and 40 feet wide to 48 feet wide at the rear where a walking lane leads over to Duval Street. The second structure later disappeared off the lot. 

 

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"Old Town Diamond in the rough beckons to be returned to its former splendor. This island gem sits on 5900 + sq ft lot in the X-FLOOD zone. Been in same family for nearly a century. Dade Co Pine & most rooms have 11 ft ceilings! Back yard is spacious enough to accommodate construction of a pool or expansion of the residence & boasts one of few surviving out houses in KW. Distance across the rear yard from back door to back wall is 63 ft. Mature fruit trees include Spanish lime, mango and Madagascar plum. Fantastic location less than 2 blocks from World Famous Duval St, 3 blocks from Hemingway House, a 1/2 block from the entrance to the Truman Annex & a 1/2 block from the Green Parrot! Off street parking (hard to find in Old Town) & HRO zoning. Existing driveway is 52 ft long. This is a renovation project, but will be a treasured Key West residence! Property being sold As-Is with no repair & no clean up".

The top photo demonstrates the interior height and shows earlier "renovation" when acoustic ceiling tiles were added. The second photo shows Dade County Pine ceiling in the hallway. I have often blogged about modernization's of yesteryear. Owners in the fifties and sixties added drywall and tiles to hide Dade County Pine thinking it was too old looking.

The above two photos show Dade County Pine walls and what appears to show a former porch having been incorporated into the interior. The floors may or may not be level. That all gets taken care of during any renovation. The good thing is this property is located in the X Flood Zone. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and more listing photos of 316 Southard Street, Key West. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to discuss purchase options on this property offered at $1,800,000. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.