Von Phister Street

From March 2009 this winterish meditation on a particular street in Key West with suitably pertinent ruminations on a  cold winter six years ago:

Von Phister

A winter evening in New Town; a Triumph Bonneville, a camera and me:

It's the corner of Tropical Street and Von Phister. I'm not sure I could live too easily on a street that goes by the unfortunately sounding name, but there it is, a fist of a street, harsh and uncompromising in name only::The sun was starting to hit the horizon which gives the light a golden glow and perhaps that made the suburban street look prettier than usual:And even though this isn't the world of narrow lanes and wooden tumbledown homes of Old Town it is pretty enough to pass muster in a world of bland mini malls.I'm not overly fond of streets without sidewalks but there's lots of grassy edges to park on, or walk along if you are crazy enough to be on foot. Ride a moped, drive an electric car if you live in Key West:According to J Wills Burke's book Streets of Key West there were two Von Phisters and either one could be the source of this slightly odd street name. The elder owned a grocery store where the Green Parrot Bar is today and his son was a magistrate in Key West in 1860. (J Wills Burke's book is available from your local independent books seller. Quote ISBN 1 56164 317 3). Nowadays Von Phister, which runs from Reynolds Street to George Street, shows off a whole bunch of architectural styles, the cute little Florida beach cottage:The old Key West balcony:And the mid century storm shutters that always look so appealing to me, be they ever so impractical:I spotted more of these tin shutters with the red stripe on a house across the street, a home dominated by a giant casuarina, also known as an Australian pine:I also noticed a lot of tin roofs in this neighborhood, which are a good thing in hurricane country but that doesn't mean you always see a lot of them:Technically speaking, if you were to speak to a realtor they might call this part of the world "Mid Town" which was a newer designation for that part of key West that lies more or less between White Street and First Streets. Historically Old Town was the original area of Key West between White Street and the waterfront. Gradually as the city spread east, absorbing the open spaces where cattle had grazed, the newer suburban homes became known as New Town, rather unimaginatively. However, in order to differentiate between the far distant suburbs of First through 20th Streets and those named streets lying closer to White Street, the term "Mid Town" got coined, kind of. In a city that measures one's value by the length of time one has lived there, changes come slowly. Von Phister is New Town really and thus has lots of room for big houses:It certainly isn't Old Town, but it has flowers:...and Art:...and some funky architectural motifs:...and families:But because this is New/Mid Town houses have room for the much desired OSP, off street parking:And just a reminder that even though this is 24 degrees North Latitude we still have leafless trees in Key West:I do like living in the Keys, you lot can keep your snow.

Von Phister By Night

I left the police station at one in the morning on my lunch break with no idea where to go or what to do. Indecision sometimes is my friend. I stopped on Von Phister Street for a walk with camera in hand, and as I walked I thought to myself how easy it is to sop on almost any Key West street and find something to look at. A Triumph Bonneville for a start, well worn at 38,000 miles but still running just fine:Key West's houses take on a slightly mysterious air at night. Imagine if you will how quiet and serene the street is,the air warm on the skin and the humidity is high enough to produce a light sweat. From the street there are no sounds.

Some homeowners like to burn electricity all night long illuminating their porches and keeping Keys Energy Services (the old City Electric Company) happy. It cheers up a photographer who wants no part of using an electronic flash. This was a hand held shot at one second's exposure.This next one could have used half a second but I like the challenge of taking multiple exposures and erasing the wobbly fuzzy ones. It takes a surprisingly long time to gather enough pictures for an essay at night.

According to J. Wills Burke's The Streets of Key West there are two William Von Phisters buried in the Key West cemetery, one who died in 1850 and owned the building that houses the Green Parrot on Whitehead Street. He dabbled in real estate and ran a store in that building and according to Burke he was one of two men who was responsible for platting much of the island. If you have no offsets today on your lot you should apparently blame Von Phister. This is the eponymous street looking east toward New Town.

Von Phister's offspring was elected a Judge just as the Civil War was about to break out and he refused to serve according to Burke when Florida seceded. He stepped up to the bench once more when Key West was declared Union territory by the soldiers at Fort Zachary and after the war he went on to be elected to the city commission. As Burke reports rather dryly it did not seem to matter to the voters that the younger William Von Phister had been a Union sympathizer.

I took the shot above with the appropriate setting for artificial light but I thought it looked rather cold so I reset the camera for daylight and got this orange glow. I did finally pop the flash on the Bonneville and got this rather stark rendering of my motorcycle.
Or this without the flash. A group of young loud people on bicycles pedaled by laughing and shouting on their way. For those that like to think the streets of key West are a place of peril at 1:30 in the morning I am sorry to disappoint. There was no drama.

I went back to the station and napped for 20 minutes, and awoke refreshed and ready to answer the phones until 6am.