The Marathon Yacht Club has a charming old club house at the end of what must perforce be a dead end street in a town that abounds in them. You can dock a boat here:
Though if you are not a member of the club or an affiliated such organization entry is not permitted. There is a deliciously 1960s air to the club, a low building in beautiful traditional blue and white:
The setting is perfect, ample parking and a view over the endless open waters of the Gulf of Mexico north of Marathon.
I can only imagine how much this place bustles in winter but at the time of year the overflow lot was empty except for my illegally parked vehicle, and of the five cars in the inner lot two had out of state tags. I imagine the proportion is even higher when the snowbirds return.
It seems like a nice little oasis off the beaten track, a couple of blocks off Highway One and the only sound was that of the occasional boat buzzing by and the wind whistling through the flagpole rigging.
http://www.marathonyachtclub.com/So the next time some nerd drags you to the end of 33rd Street in Marathon and tells you this is Fort Zinderneuf...
...you will be able to reply with confidence: "Fort Zinderneuf? No silly, that's the Marathon Yacht Club." And you will be correct.
6 comments:
I've long noticed your predilection for 50's and 60's South Florida architecture, often followed by comments about it being 'real'.
From whence does this come? I've always looked at postwar boom architecture as the land of generic boxes and ugly awnings sold by shysters pushing tin...but that's just my opinion.
Curious,
Chuck.
So that you realize I'm not a grump when it comes to postwar architecture:
http://www.lustronpreservation.org/
Just want to understand the attraction.
It's respect for survivors in the land of constant renewal (and not generally for the better). Plus I had an early experience of Florida with a woman who was fanatical about hating the new Florida. She is a native with a love of the old.
I get that - this is why I live in an 1899 house. Just about every house I've lived in was built in the '50s or '60s, so they seem regular to me, not old. Old is the turn of the last century.
Old is your former family landholdings in Italy. Properties built in our lifetime (or just before) qualify as contemporary, in my opinion.
The time will come when I too have a yacht, and will find myself welcomed in places like these, provided they have a full service bar at the dock.
Fondest regards,
Jack/Reep
Twisted Roads
Michael--
And just north/east of there is my favorite view of all in the Keys, the Vaca Cut.
Marathon may be the most commercial-laden of the Keys, but boy, that area just north/east of there really is some beautiful water.
Thanks for sharing...
Greg P. in WV, where the water is most certainly not blue on the mighty Ohio River...
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