|
|
|
|||||||
|
Key West By Nancy and Richard Woodworth Call it Tropical. Mysterious. Romantic. Debauched. Notorious. Captivating. Paradise. The Conch Republic. The Last Resort. Call it what you will. The last of the Florida Keys cast its spell on notables as different as John Audubon, Ernest Hemingway, John Dewey, Tennessee Williams and Harry S. Truman. Not to mention the prosperous salvagers and merchants who preceded them and turned Florida's southernmost outpost into what for a time was the richest small town in America. Nor the artists, the VIPs and the multitudes who followed. Key West is an island of contrasts. Pirates and novelists, sailors and adventurers, bootleggers and artists, treasure seekers and tourists live and languish side by side in a small town where the "world's longest street" stretches twelve blocks from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Miami and the mainland are more than 150 miles distant. Cuba is a scant 90 miles across the horizon. The sense of remoteness makes Key West "The Last Resort" – in more ways than one. So does the subtropical landscape and the lazy lure of a place where the ocean temperature varies only between 78 and 80 degrees and the air temperature not much more. Since the first house in south Florida was built here in 1829, Key West has spawned its own culture, customs and cuisine. The descendants of early arrivals from the Bahamas are the island-born Key Westers known as Conchs. Their Bahamian-style homes and those of Cuban cigarmakers lurk between Victorian mansions built by New England sea captains. Bootlegging, shipwreck salvaging, shrimping, sponging, cigarmaking, artistry – all have helped create a small and swinging island city like no other. The architecture and diversity of 3,100 structures in Key West's three historic districts alone are worth noting. So is the variety of enticements that allow one to snorkel along coral reefs, kayak through mangroves, parasail above idyllic beaches, tour historic homes and gardens, sample exotic cuisine, examine cross-currents of the art world, and take advantage of more attractions than a place its size has a right to offer. Key West has had its ups and downs. Declines followed the destruction of Henry M. Flagler's overseas railroad in the 1935 hurricane and the closing of the Key West Naval Station in 1968. Belatedly, it turned to tourism. Historic landmarks became tourist attractions. Ramshackle boarding houses and decaying mansions were upscaled into inns and B&Bs. Bars and watering holes metamorphosed into restaurants. The pace decidedly quickened in the 1990s. The Key West that we first visited in 1984, when it was just beginning to awaken from slumber, is quite different today. There's more of everything, including residents and attractions and, especially, visitors. The lure of paradise grows stronger. 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
page |
Full destination index | |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
