Ann Street is a modest little block barely noticed by busy people swarming around Lower Duval. Ann cuts between Greene Street (named for one of the four founders of the city) and Caroline Street (named for someone else). The landmark that pins Ann Street down is Old City Hall:
And Old City Hall dominates Green Street as well:
Ann Street is just another of the myriad Key West streets named for women, for some reason I can't fathom. Boats get female names usually so perhaps there was just a huge number of remarkable boats that deserved streets naming after them . I don't know and as usual I am digressing. Here's the 200 Block of Ann Street, the only block in fact:
The homes along Ann are not very numerous, there's an empty lot, and how rare is that in Key West? Not as rare as you might think, and frequently they seem to be hardly used at all:
Spare ground, as it were with a dead tree standing tall like a piece of sculpture. There are the conch cottages of course, and ample palm fronds too:
Ann Street seems to rejoice in an unusually large proportion of large buildings:
Including this one with spectacular examples of fine Bahama shutters. A friend who has this type of window covering disappointed me before Tropical Storm Fay hit. She said the shutters seem nearly useless banging loudly and shaking in the winds. I always thought that in addition to looking good they made good hurricane shutters:
Perhaps others have better luck with them. I hope so because I like seeing them around town. The Curry Mansion is huge of course, it wouldn't be a mansion otherwise:
And the small houses are nestled in their foliage:
Both inside the trash cans and out of them. Joh McClane of Scooter in Turkey fame has made his disdain for bougainvillea known so I took a picture of something that isn't. I have no clue what this pink flowered arrangement is called:
The bare tree to the right is a telephone pole. I do know that. I also came across another classic car that looked to me vaguely like a Corsair though I'm probably wrong on that too:
Valuable off street parking collecting dust and cobwebs, which seems like a waste to me. And there is the distance, grilling in the August sun, lies Caroline Street:
But it's Old City Hall with its bulk that dominates Ann Street, looking back towards Greene Street:
I have noted elsewhere on the offices underneath the building undergoing renovation. The work viewed from the exterior seems extensive:
But these are beautiful and impressive doorways, suitable for such a building as this:
The city is talking about moving the current city hall from Angela Street and building something new elsewhere. This place looks big enough surely?
And one could sit and contemplate its proportions from a comfortable table across the street on Greene:
And Old City Hall dominates Green Street as well:Ann Street is just another of the myriad Key West streets named for women, for some reason I can't fathom. Boats get female names usually so perhaps there was just a huge number of remarkable boats that deserved streets naming after them . I don't know and as usual I am digressing. Here's the 200 Block of Ann Street, the only block in fact:The homes along Ann are not very numerous, there's an empty lot, and how rare is that in Key West? Not as rare as you might think, and frequently they seem to be hardly used at all:Spare ground, as it were with a dead tree standing tall like a piece of sculpture. There are the conch cottages of course, and ample palm fronds too:Ann Street seems to rejoice in an unusually large proportion of large buildings:Including this one with spectacular examples of fine Bahama shutters. A friend who has this type of window covering disappointed me before Tropical Storm Fay hit. She said the shutters seem nearly useless banging loudly and shaking in the winds. I always thought that in addition to looking good they made good hurricane shutters:Perhaps others have better luck with them. I hope so because I like seeing them around town. The Curry Mansion is huge of course, it wouldn't be a mansion otherwise:And the small houses are nestled in their foliage:Both inside the trash cans and out of them. Joh McClane of Scooter in Turkey fame has made his disdain for bougainvillea known so I took a picture of something that isn't. I have no clue what this pink flowered arrangement is called:The bare tree to the right is a telephone pole. I do know that. I also came across another classic car that looked to me vaguely like a Corsair though I'm probably wrong on that too:Valuable off street parking collecting dust and cobwebs, which seems like a waste to me. And there is the distance, grilling in the August sun, lies Caroline Street:But it's Old City Hall with its bulk that dominates Ann Street, looking back towards Greene Street:I have noted elsewhere on the offices underneath the building undergoing renovation. The work viewed from the exterior seems extensive: But these are beautiful and impressive doorways, suitable for such a building as this:The city is talking about moving the current city hall from Angela Street and building something new elsewhere. This place looks big enough surely?And one could sit and contemplate its proportions from a comfortable table across the street on Greene: Some lucky vacationer no doubt long since gone from Key West, and probably never even noticed little Ann Street.
10 comments:
Thank's for another great visit to Key West...
love seeing the pictures. thanks!
(Note that there actually is also another block of Ann -- the 100 block that runs from Green down to Front....)
You're right, Ann starts on Front but the 100 block is home to a parking lot, a Trolley Tour depot and not much else and I forgot all about it! Oops!
I actually think the car is a 1964 Chevrolet Corvair which looks like this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2270296790_732e63b598_m.jpg
I remember growing up that a guy that worked for my Dad had one that he stored fish food in that sat permanently near his fishing pond.
ford (spit) made the Corsair which had a very different rear (ugly as unforgiven sin if you ask me):
http://www.yorkshireclassics.co.uk/corsair%20drivers%20side%20rear.jpg
Betting you were thinking correctly and typed a slightly wrong name :)
I was thinking correctly, I think and only half remembered the name. The back end is/was distinctive, the name less so! I wondered why it is sitting there moldering.
KWshoes, of The Real Key West Blog, could tell you exactly what the car is, as he manages and lives on that property. The car belongs to the property's owner, he lives out of the country. I stayed there a couple of weeks ago while visiting my folks in Key West.
I gotta start paying attention. I'm not sure why I never put Key West Diary into my BlogLines favorites before, but it's there now.
It's a 1963 Corvair Monza convertible and it belongs to the owner of the property. His instructions: leave it alone, don't let anyone touch it. We put the tarp on it last year to keep it from filling up with water when it rains.
Nice little travelogue of Ann Street, Scooter. I think of it as "my street" and try to keep it clean as much as possible.
There's a locals scramble every morning at about 6:00 AM for one of the four or five free parking spaces where the City apparently forgot to put meters. Shhh, don't tell anyone.
I think the pink flowers are frangipani (a type of plumeria). It also comes in white and yellow. You can cut off a piece, dry it out for a week and then stick it into the ground (and in 3 weeks or so, it will start growing more leaves).
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