A Brief History of Frances Street

524 Frances Street in 1965

A Brief History of Frances Street

By Mary Haffenreffer

One of the earliest settlers of Key West, William Whitehead, surveyed and mapped out Frances Street in February of 1829. At the time it was probably nothing but uncleared tropical scrub, with not enough nutrients to sustain a cow. The most accepted theory of the name’s origin is that “Frances” was the daughter of John W. C. Fleming, another early settler.

Known in Spanish as “Calle Francia,” Whitehead’s vision of Frances Street appears on the 1884 Bird’s Eye View Map showing the early grand homes built by John T. Sawyer and John Roberts among others. They were built – many by shipwrights - without building permits or HARC approval, but we’re lucky enough to have them “grandfathered in”. Local artist Linda Todhunter has recently completed a restoration of the Bird’s Eye View Map that’s bright, crisp and readable. The prints are available at High Wire Framing on Truman Avenue and Key West Light Gallery on Duval Street.

We may boast that most of the illustrious old families, the scions of commerce and industry – the deliciously lavish, the happily unsuspecting, the simple, the thoroughly difficult, the perfectly pious, the naughty, the notorious – all ended up in the Frances Street area, some earlier than others, because this is where in 1847 the City purchased the greater part of what is now the City Cemetery. From time to time it was enlarged as land became available in the outskirts of Key West. To this day a sense of eternal peace pervades for those walking or bicycling through or past the cemetery where no “slow down” sign need be posted – it goes without saying.

The Tax Appraiser’s 1960s photos of houses, viewable on the library website

www.keyslibraries.org, are worth viewing. You can also go to http://www.flickr.com and type in your address. Most Old Town homes can be found there.Included with the images are legal descriptions, street addresses (when known), and approximate construction dates derived from the Historic Sites Survey produced by the City of Key West. The photo site is still a work in progress, but the entire area of the Frances Street Neighborhood Association is complete.

If this piques your curiosity for more information, stop by the History Room of the Public Library for a conversation with Tom Hambright. He’ll surely be able to pull out old maps and photos of your area of interest. He is a cornucopia of hard factual information and colorful local lore.

For a more information on Key West Historic Architecture read this interesting piece at http://www.rudymolinet.com/key-west-houses.html

Year End Meeting - Next City Commission Meeting

Dear Neighbors:

We will have our last meeting of 2009 on Monday, December 28th at 5:30pm at the home of John Padget and Jacob Gelt Dekker (611 Frances St.) We will have a brief meeting summarizing the year’s accomplishments and then have a social hour to celebrate the holidays with our neighbors.

We still have some important business happening at the next City Commission Meeting:

The City Commission will be hearing 2nd reading of the proposed franchise agreement for City View Trolleys. Your input is invaluable. The more neighbors who attend and make clear to our Commissioners what our desires are regarding this issue, the better. It is clear that they are listening to us. Please check out the other blog entries here to see some of our neighbors’ opinions and concerns regarding this issue.

We encourage you to post your opinions as well. Not only on this subject, but certainly on other issues which affect us. (The ordinance link is: http://www.keywestcity.com/egov/docs/935881260480667.pdf)

Another important Agenda item is the 1st reading of the “clarification” of the height restrictions for buildings in the Historic District (you can read the Ordinance at this link: http://www.keywestcity.com/egov/docs/789331260480307.pdf). Again, your input on this issue is valuable.

Thank you for your continued support – and hope to see you on the 28th.

MaryBeth

We Don't Need Another Trolley Company In Key West

Letter to our Neighbors from Mary Haffenreffer:

Dear Neighbors,

The December 15th meeting of the City Commission will make a decision that will affect our neighborhood's quality of life, convenience, and public safety for many years to come. The Commission will be deciding whether to grant or deny a franchise to City View Trolley Tours.Why do we need another sightseeing company: we already have the trolleys and trains of Historic Tours of America ("HTA"), and a court has ordered that Duck Tours must be granted a franchise, so there is no issue of monopoly. Another company will not bring one more tourist to our town, and will probably add only negligibly more sightseers to our streets and dollars to our City's revenue, since virtually all of City View's customers would be taken from HTA and the Ducks. City View would only add more congestion to our streets, which, as retired Fire Marshall Alex Vega wrote the Commission, could seriously impede the swift passage of emergency vehicles.

How responsive City View would be to our legitimate concerns has been made all too clear by the litigation threats and personal slurs that its principals and attorney have made toward the Commissioners. Why do we have to have them? We don't. We DO need as many people as possible from the neighborhood to attend the meeting because the Commissioners are aware of our presence. Hope to see you there.

Mary Haffenreffer

A big thanks to Mary and Rudy and everyone else following and participating in the process that hopefully will keep Frances Street (and the rest of Old Town) from being overrun by tour vehicles. (BTW: a friend opines that it is important to keep the numbers of vehicles down in the short term, but that in the long term the market will regulate itself. New tour companies will not create more riders, so the various companies will be fighting over a fixed number of passengers, and before long some of the start ups will shut down. Let us pray...)

The subject of tours on our streets gets me going about noise in general-- motorcycles, scooters, garbage/recycling trucks, blah blah. My grandmother always told me not to worry about issues I can do nothing about. One noise I CAN do something about is roosters. Just this week I had a friend-- the chicken whisperer-- catch and remove two cockaphonous (error intended) critters from the cemetery near the sexton's office, and oh my nights' sleep since has been something to crow about. If any roosters are bothering you, or your beautifully landscaped garden is being ruined by a "scratch" of chickens, let me know and I'll hook you up with my friend.

Cheers, Rob Sprogell

295-0647