Marquesa Court

There was a mention by a reader, an eon or two ago, of a bunch of relatively new homes built next to the last trace of railroad tracks in Key West. Now that I have the Bonneville back it seemed like an excellent idea to go in to work a little early and take some pictures on the way:For the Mormons living in the complex their church is located but a stone's throw away, in the rather undistinguished building half hidden from the road by the abundant vegetation.

The easiest way to find this side street is by first locating the world headquarters of the local rag. The offices of The Citizen are visible through the trees, half hidden by this fine motorcycle that happened to be in the way. It was in The Citizen that I read a few years ago, of the new housing complex that was to be built, in the halcyon days of unbridled development, close to the last traces of the old Flagler railroad tracks across the island. On the north side...of...Northside Drive, there lies a well known physician's office, a certain Dr Boros who looks after people's hearts and makes an appearance from time to time in what pass for society pages in Key West:

The subdivision in question has a dozen homes or so, though I confess I failed to actually count them as I spun by on my Bonneville. There is a certain cookie cutter conformity though they are large by city standards: These "Key West style" homes have all mod cons, (modern conveniences) including......balconies, columns and white picket fencing, as well as granite counter tops I have no doubt, not to mention in some lucky cases basketball hoops:
And there is room enough to park a pretty big boat out front, which is a nice luxury in a city as tightly packed as Key West:

The path of the railroad tracks as they traveled west from the Cow Key Channel apparently ran through a mangrove thicket somewhere near here, though their location is lost to the passage of time, as far as I am concerned, though i did take the picture shown below. And anyone venturing into the "environmentally sensitive area" would likely get scratched, sensitively to death. Though there is a gate and it was open, almost as an invitation to self detruction on a 90 degree (34C) evening:This home in the back of the little complex was actually for sale, in what i thought is one of the prime locations. God knows what unrealistic figure they are asking for it:

The entire complex of homes is little more than a couple of ess-bends in the street ending up in a wide turn around: So I turned around and fled back to Northside Drive before anyone caught me traipsing on the hallowed ground of Flagler's former railroad...