Olivia Street By Night

It was early in the morning. Rusty woke me up and demanded a walk. It had been a while since we came to Key West before dawn so I drove us downtown from our home on Cudjoe Key.

I started by taking him to Truman Waterfront which held no interest. So then I stopped on Olivia Street for a look see. This Rusty inspected with greater enthusiasm. I got a few pictures.

It was around five in the morning by the time we got here but there was no one around, except for passing cars on Duval Street. 

I wandered along behind Rusty's busy nose enjoying the warm night air and the architecture that never bores me.

We are told Key West is the largest historic wooden neighborhood in the country. 

Not surprising really. Simonton at Olivia:

I can look at this stuff all night long. All day too, except it's more peopley then.

It's remarkable to me how much detail there is in the homes around Old Town and I've been looking at this stuff for two decades.

Olivia Street looking east, away from Duval Street that is.

And not all of it is wood:

But there again this is old Florida and it looks excellent and atmospheric:

Back on Duval Street briefly, at Petronia:

Going, Going...

Facing Olivia Street, across from the cemetery which seems sadly appropriate, there crumbles this old home.



I cannot say that I should like to have been a pioneer living with a hand water pump, oil lamps and mosquitoes but I do take pleasure from seeing the past as a lesson for the present.



I wonder who built this place but for all that they lived long ago and must surely long since be dead, I expect they had all the usual hopes and dreams for future generations.



My own gutters are channeled to a cistern to collect rainwater and even though I can access the Aqueduct at the turn of a switch I prefer to run my house on my own supply of fresh water.



In those days hoping for rain was a necessity as piped water only came from the mainland to feed the war effort in 1942.



Held together by string and a prayer.



Which one per center wants a fourth home in paradise that needs a little work?


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Olivia At Simonton

Olivia Street is one way outbound from deep in Bahama Village. On Whitehead Street it is marked clearly by the brick wall of the Hemingway House. Here at Simonton Olivia is flanked by two distinctive wooden houses. This one on the north corner.This one on the south corner. Not every narrow street is one way in Key West but Olivia is, outbound, which is to say away from Duval Street.Palms and picket fences, and it's a pity it's too expensive they say to bury electrical cables.Though you'd think they could have done it when they were digging up the streets and building the sewer system.
Royal palms are my idea of a relatively low maintenance attractive tree.This house was getting refurbished including the tin roof in the old style. Historic architecture guidelines for Old Town are quite strict.This rather large tree looked like it had skin.More picket fences and Conch cottages. This block of Olivia is quite picturesque. I haven't been to Seven Fish for dinner in ages but I very much like this restaurant.from the outside it's just another little white structure, on Olivia at Elizabeth.Looking back toward Simonton Street from Elizabeth.Simple bricks and spaces make quite an effect for a garden wall.I didn't have the nerve to enquire how much this rental might cost. A lot, I'm sure.

Somehow I caught the return of the seaplane flight from Fort Jefferson.

But this is what I was on Olivia to gawk at, beautiful homes and lush gardens.

And the white picket fences of course. Instead of being my back street escape from Duval Street, Olivia deserves more attention paid to it's own charms. It's a pretty spot.