Sunday, March 14, 2010

By story BY BARBARA BOWERS Special to The Citizen PHOTOS BY TERRI BRENTNALL Special to The Citizen

Flanked by commercial buildings and featuring a double-gated entrance akin to a waterless moat, 512 Fleming St. is a veritable fortress in the heart of Old Town.

"David Wolkowsky built this house in the early 1990s, behind the commercial properties he owned on Fleming Street," said homeowner Roberta Lowe. "At the time, I managed residential properties around Key West and I knew I wanted to buy this place, but I asked him to make me a deal because even back then, property was expensive."

Lowe said she had to bargain hard for the three-bedroom, three-bathroom structure that she bought in 1994.

"Of course, the house would come with the central courtyard and land it was built on, but it was a big battle with David to own the driveway that would assure permanent easement," she said.

"His original plan for the property was to build an apartment over a double garage, but somewhere along the way, the pool was built into the driveway, the entrance was scaled down and the building's first floor became two bedroom suites," Lowe said.

In fact, Lowe had some influence on how the house would eventually turn out. For instance, a full, front balcony was intended to run the entire length of the house and overlook the courtyard.

"This meant there would only be a skinny, galley kitchen," she said. "Any woman knows that would never do, so David acted on my suggestion to enlarge it by bumping out the kitchen into the balcony space, which shortened it to only run across the living room area."

The finished product is a second-floor, living/dining room with multiple sets of double doors that open to balconies on the front -- and back -- which also incorporates a kitchen with a huge picture window and disappearing slider-like doors topped by a wooden glass rack.

"There used to be more stemmed glasses dangling from the rack, but the wind blew them off," said Rick Ellson, the gourmet chef in the family since he and Lowe married on Valentine's Day in 2004. "This is like living in a tree house, the air flow is so great."

Because the living space is on the second floor, window treatments are unnecessary, although Lowe fashioned an unusual, three-part cloth screen that slides across all the back doors for privacy, if needed. At the moment, the tops of palm trees and other dense foliage camouflage the house and property on Bahama Street that backs up to 512 Fleming St.

An Asian theme permeates the house. In the second-floor great room, a Chinese dress coat hangs on one wall, an elephant bell from Thailand on another. The huge formal dining room table boasts a two-monkey base carved from stone.

"I was in love with the monkeys, and the guys at Fletcher's were so ready to get rid of them during their going-out-of-business sale that they threw in the glass tabletop for almost nothing," Lowe said.

The unusual reversal of living space upstairs also includes the guest bedroom with its own "Juliet balcony that has no purpose besides allowing good air flow when the double doors are open," Lowe said.

Then there is the porthole window high on the wall at the peak of the cathedral ceiling. "That is a Wolkowsky trademark," she said. "There is no way to clean it."

The first floor features two suites split almost equally by the central staircase with the master bedroom on the right side and a big office on the left. At the front and back of the big rooms, three sets of double, glass doors open to the gardens. The front courtyard doors, though, are hung with Indonesian teak screens that once belonged to Wolkowsky.

"Part of the deal with David was to store his stuff for an indeterminate amount of time. After a year went by and the white screens were still here, I had window frames built on the doors, mounted the screens then invited David for dinner," Lowe said. "He was sitting pretty much where you are at this same garden table, when he looked and squinted, stared and something like indignation crossed his face.

"I was pretty sure our friendship was going up in flames until he burst into laughter. That's when I knew the screens were mine forever," she laughed. "They do a great job protecting the glass doors, don't they?"

Barbara Bowers is a writer and member of the Key West Historic Architectural Review Commission. To suggest a home feature, send an e-mail to Barbara@bbowers.com. Homes listed for sale will not be considered.