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Key West The two-block-long alley called Center Street is an anomaly – it's one of Key West's oldest and least gentrified neighborhoods, slumbering half a block away from busy Duval Street on one side and posh Simonton Street on the other. Seemingly singlehandedly, Naomi Van Steelandt is changing its nature. She restored a guest house and two adjacent cottages in 1994 into seven B&B accommodations, earning a couple of preservation awards along the way. Then she hopscotched along the street, buying three more properties as they – and the requisite transient licenses needed for nightly rentals – became available, adding seven more guest quarters. The day we visited, she had started renovating two more side-by-side cottages for a total of eighteen units. You got the feeling this one-woman dynamo was only beginning. Naomi, a hands-on innkeeper from the get-go, offers quite a variety of accommodations. She also does things differently. Breakfast is self-serve from the main house kitchen at the hour you want. There's a convivial happy hour later in the day on the rear veranda or around the heated pool, spa and tropical gardens. Naomi’s suites and houses are child- and pet-friendly. She adores local art, and decorates lavishly according to theme. "This is my underwater cottage," she advised during a tour, pointing out the unifying factor in all the artworks and accessories in the Cistern House, an efficiency unit with queen bed, porch and garden beside the pool. She lights a sculpture at night atop the well left open to view behind the guest house. Across the pool is an open-air "exercise pavilion" with workout equipment. In the two-bedroom Family House are a kingsize waterbed, a second room with a double bed, a living room with a queen sofabed, a kitchen fully equipped with everything from gourmet utensils to a Cuisinart, a dining area ready for a dinner party, and a private deck in back. Other accommodations vary from four simple but comfortable rooms with queen beds in the guest house to the self-contained Conch Cottage, a two-bedroom condo-style layout that, like the Family House, sleeps up to six. Here, wooden cats rest on a beam above the cathedral-ceilinged living room. An outdoor shower is hidden off the rear deck. All accommodations have private baths, hair dryers, TVs, telephones, beach tote bags, in-room safes and wonderful art by a favorite Florida artist. Naomi, a registered nurse who is also a notary public, performs weddings. She puts newlyweds up in the Treetop Studio, the top floor of the rare Eyebrow House down the street, which has a private rooftop deck with a jacuzzi, shower and gas grill. The main floor of the house holds a couple of two-room suites that share a rear deck outfitted with a hammock and a whirlpool spa. We begged off on touring the three units in the Porchside Paradise, which Naomi described as "cute, cute, cute." Instead we reviewed her plans for two new "sister cottages," a few doors up Olivia Street. Former cigarmaker homes, these were to be "more cottagey in the Martha Stewart style." She envisioned these as rustic, with darker woods, crown molding and chair rails – "not so contemporary Caribbean" as the others. We’ll see them the next time, along with whatever else Naomi is up to. She’s one of Key West’s few innkeepers actually in residence, and may well be the life of the party. (305) 296-9292 or (800) 797-8787. Fax (305) 294-4104. E-mail: centerct@aol.com For more information: www.centercourtkw.com or www.centercourthideaways.com Four rooms and fourteen cottage suites with private baths. Doubles $98 to $178, cottage suites, $158 to $348. Children and pets welcome. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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