Smurf Village

The awarding of nicknames is a popular past time in Key West. So when they built mushroom shaped duplexes in New Town the nickname came easily. The homes aren't that big, compared to say, a semi truck......but they are distinctive.The top floor is larger than the downstairs in these homes and they have a hexagonal shape so naturally to a Conch they look like Smurf homes. So the neighborhood is now known informally a s"Smurf Village." It makes sense.Some of the homes have elaborate yards but others appear to have fallen prey to the economic times and appear unused.During the boom years these homes sold for prices hovering around the half million dollar mark. In Key West they rate as fairly large with privacy and yards of their own and if they have no off street parking the streets are not choked with cars.And even though it's New Town that doesn't mean there isn't landscaping.Key West, home to diversity in housing, including Smurfs.

Smurf Village

A good few years ago when I was taking a call for service in New Town my supervisor leaned over, looked at the address on the computer monitor and said, "Ah, Smurf Village." And then pretended to ignore me. Denise knew well enough that my curiosity would kill me, and she knew I was always interested in her stories of growing up in the "good old days..."

"It was a new development," she said, relenting finally with a smile. "They built a whole bunch of duplexes, with overhanging roofs like mushrooms, and painted them bright blue." Everyone thought they looked like the homes of cartoon Smurfs, popular at the time, so in a town that lives and dies by nicknames, the title stuck:

Since those early days the new homeowners have repainted them of course, various shades of this and that:

Smurf Village lies north of Flagler Avenue between 16th Street and 14th Street (14th unhappily also goes by the name of Glynn Archer Drive to make it more confusing) and Duck Avenue. Smurf Village is bisected by a couple of smaller one way streets, Pearl and Harriet, New Town additions to the list of women's names gracing Key West streets: As well as the larger, and straighter, thoroughfare called Eagle Avenue:These are all streets with fairly abundant greenery which adds to the charm, and homeowners in Smurf Village enjoy duplexes with yards large enough to grow a bush or two:I haven't heard the term Smurf Village used in a while so perhaps it has faded from the lips of newer arrivals, perhaps the Smurfs are no longer the craze they once were and perhaps too, people who paid half a million or more for their duplex may not want to think of themselves as living in a cartoon character's toadstool. Even though they do boast those pronounced overhangs and easily identified silhouettes: Make no mistake these are duplexes:I know a couple of people who live in Smurf Village and I understand the interiors with two beds and two baths boast about 1200 square feet of space, a nice size for a Key West home. These days I'm told some of the less fancy homes -no central air, no swimming pool- are offered for less than $200,000, and the more upscale ones are offered around $300,000 so working folks could get a pretty decent home in this very pleasant neighborhood:And like everywhere else in Key West, when it comes to real estate, if you wait long enough it will come on the market:This sign looked pretty weathered so a cute Smurf home with pool may or may not still be looking for a happy new owner...