KEY LARGO -- Nestled among shady hardwoods on the edge of Largo Sound is a 2.5-acre compound straight out of the 1930s.

Shadow Point at the end of Bonito Avenue at mile marker 103.8 is home to two secluded cottages that have quietly served a pioneer family for several generations. The fenced property is now a one-of-a-kind vacation rental retreat.

Built by a ship's captain almost 100 years ago, the cottages were purchased in 1917 by Frank E. Sweeting, a Chicago industrialist who developed the Anglers Park subdivision between Largo Sound and the Overseas Highway. It remains one of the oldest -- if not the oldest -- extant residences in Key Largo.

Sweeting's daughter, Lelia, married a young man named Marvin D. Adams who came to Miami in 1925 and later became Sweeting's sales manager.

After Sweeting's death in the early 1950s, Adams inherited Shadow Point and 50 acres of prime land that stretched from Largo Sound to Blackwater Sound. He wanted to do something significant with that land, says granddaughter Marlee Matheson, who now owns Shadow Point with brother Sandy McNaughton.

"My grandfather was an adventurer and a visionary," Matheson told the Free Press. "He wanted for people -- himself included -- to be able to go from backwater fishing to the ocean and back again. He loved to fish in the backcountry."

Since his youth he had been enthralled with the Panama Canal. Because his 50 acres was at a narrow point on Key Largo, he decided to cut through the coral from one side of the island to the other.

That passage, which opened to boat traffic on Feb. 26, 1961, is now called the Marvin D. Adams Waterway, or more commonly, "The Cut."

During its dedication the waterway was celebrated as the second most significant private project in Keys history, behind Henry Flagler's railroad.

Today, the walls of the Shadow Point cottages tell the story of the Sweeting and Adams families through memorabilia, photographs and art.

Old pictures of men holding up a large spotted leopard ray and a 20-something Marvin Adams astraddle a sawfish adorn the walls along with watercolor paintings of coconut palms and early Keys living.

Well-used skillets hang over the stove of an antique kitchen. Skirted bathroom sinks with gossamer curtains and two-toned walls, a purposeful throwback to the 1930s, adorn three wash rooms, one located between bedrooms for guests to share. A bedroom next to the kitchen includes a neatly-made double bed. Three other bedrooms feature single beds.

One step off the dining room, replete with eight pastel chairs around a formal table, is a long shaded porch lined with chairs.

The grounds of the compound are Keys cap rock with natural vegetation and sparse ground cover. A gravel path leads between trees and brush to two stone benches by the water's edge. An arbor, bell, sculptures, inlaid mosaics and other art capture the imagination.

According to Matheson, Shadow Point has played host to some interesting guests, including Buckminster Fuller, the architect who invented the geodesic dome, and Michael Ondaatje, the author of "The English Patient."

She has many fond memories of her youth at Shadow Point.

"We'd take a 19-foot skiff out to Dry Rocks," she said. "That's where I was raised. Raised my kids. It means freedom to me. It's a way we have always loved enjoying nature. It's magical. When the house is all opened up the breeze comes through so sweet. It was built by a ships' captain with good cross ventilation. You sense that they are still there."

sgibbs@keysnews.com