Grand turn-of-the-19th-century home on Fleming Street in Key West's Historic Seaport Neighborhood is the oldest and most famous neighborhood on the island with parameters roughly extending from Whitehead Street to White Street, and from Fleming Street to Front Street along the gulf-side harbor front of the Historic Seaport. It's fun to rent a home in this neighborhood with tree-line streets with white picket fences. Some of these houses are available as vacation rentals to rent by the week and some are available to rent by the month. This tiny district includes many of the most famous landmarks including the Mallory Square Sunset Celebration, lower Duval Street, the Key West Lighthouse and the Custom House Museums, Mile Marker 0, and the Oldest House Key West. The first fresh water well on the island is here, in the 400 block of Caroline Street, purported to be where pirates drank in the 1700s.
Because of the deeper gulf-side waterfront, it is in this tiny district where the first explorers set down island roots, where the founding fathers and mothers of the late 1800s built the first shipping docks and warehouses on the island. Quick to follow were rooming houses, restaurants, cottages and grand homes built of clear heart-pine wood that was nearly impervious to termites. Structures were built by ship builders without blueprints and only the most basic plans, often taking the style of homes they left behind in New England or other places stored in their memories.
Today, the wooden houses in the near the Key West Historic Seaport stand as one of the densest and most impressive collection of turn-of-the-century architecture in the United States. From larger Greek Revival Victorians to charming shot gun cottages, many of these alluring structures have been restored on the outside stand in their gleaming glory and renovated to modern standards in their interiors. Many have been turned into commercial establishments including guest houses, retail stores, art galleries, and restaurants. Many have been kept as private residences, with a select few available to rent as exclusive vacation rentals.
One of them most remarkable features of this wonderful neighborhood is that it's an authentic and historic pedestrian neighborhood, giving it one of the highest measures of walkability. Built before cars, created for walking because thats how people got around, before the concepts of pedestrian-friendly even existed, today stands as a remarkable example of the pleasures and benefits of sustainable urban design.
Grand turn-of-the-19th-century home on Fleming Street in Key West's Historic Seaport Neighborhood
